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SOME 

REMARKABLE PASSAGES 

IN THE 

LIFE 

OF THE HONOURABLE 

COLONEL JAMES GARDINER, 

WHO WAS SLAIN AT THE 

BATTLE OF PRESTON-PANS, 

SEPT. 21, 1745. 

WITH AN 

APPENDIX, 

RELATING TO THE 

ANCIENT FAMILY OF THE MUNROES OF FOWLIS. 

BY P. DODDRIDGE, D. D. 



-Justlor alter 



Nee Pietate fuit, nee Bello major et Armis. Virc. 









BOSTON ?%^f:^ Of 

PRINTED 4* PUBLISHED BY LINCOLN ^^ EDMANDS, 

NO. 53, CORNHILL. 

1811. 



I su 



TO 

DAVID GARDINER, Esq. 

CORNET IN SIR JOHN COPERS REGIMENT OP 
DRAGOONS. 

Dear Sir, 

While my heart is following you, with a truly pa- 
ternal solicitude, through all the dangers of military 
life, in which you are thus early engaged, anxious for 
your safety amidst the instruments of death, and the 
far more dangerous allurements of vice, I feel a pecu- 
liar pleasure in being able at length, though after such 
long delays, to put into your hands the memoirs with 
which I now present you. They contain many par- 
ticulars, which would have been worthy of your atten- 
tive notice, had they related to a person of the most 
distant nation or age : But they will, I doubt not, 
command your peculiar regard, as they are sacred to 
the memory of that excellent man, from whom you 
had the honour to derive your birth, and by whose 
generous and affectionate care you have been laid un- 
der all the obligations which the best of fathers could 
confer on a most beloved son. 

Here, Sir, you see a gentleman, who, with all the 
advantages of a liberal and religious education, added 
to every natural accomplishment that could render him 
most agreeable, entered, before he had attained the 
stature of a man, on those arduous and generous ser- 
vices to which you are devoted, and behaved in them 
with a gallantry and courage, which will always give a 
splendour to his name among the British soldiery, and 
render him an example to all officers of his rank. But, 
alas I amidst all the intrepidity of the martial hero, you 
see him vanquished by the blandishments of pleasure, 
and, i*" chase of it, plunging himself into follies and 
vices, for which no want of education or genius could 



4 DEDICATION. ^ ' 

have been a sufficient excuse. You behold him urging 
the ignoble and fatal pursuit, unmoved by the terrors 
which death was continually darting around him, and 
the most signal deliverances by which providence 
again and again rescued him from those terrors, till at 
length he was reclaimed by an ever-memorable inter* 
position of divyne grace. Then you have the pleasure 
of seeing him become, in good earnest, a convert to 
Christianity, and, by speedy advances, growing up into 
one of its brightest ornaments ; his mind continually 
filled with the great ideas which the gospel of our 
Redeemer suggests, and bringing the blessed influence 
of its sublime principles into every relation of military 
and civil, of public and domestic life. You trace him 
persevering in a steady and uniform course of good- 
ness, through a long series of honourable and prosper- 
ous years, the delight of all that were so happy as to 
know him, and, in his sphere, the most faithful guar- 
dian of his country ; till at last, worn out with honour- 
able labours, and broken with infirmities which they had 
hastened upon him before the time, you see him for- 
getting them at once, at the call of duty and provi- 
dence ; With all the generous ardour of his most vig- 
orous days rushing on the enemies of religion and 
liberty, sustaining their shock with the most deliberate 
fortitude, when deserted by those that should have 
supported him, and cheerfully sacrificing the little 
remains of a mortal life in the triumphant views of a 
glorious immortality. 

This, vSir, is the noble object I present to your view ; 
and you will, I hope, fix your eye continually upon it, 
and will never allow yourself for one day to forget, 
that tl)is illustrious man is Colonel Gardiner^ your ever 
honoured father ; who, having approved \\\%Jiddity to 
the deaths and received a crown oflife^ seems as it were, 
by what you here read, to be calling out to you from 
amidst the cloud of witnesses with which you are sur- 
rounded, and urging you, by every generous, tender, 
filial sentiment, to mark the footsteps of his christian 
race, and strenuously to maintain that combat, where 



DEDICATION. 5 

the victory is through divine grace certain, and the 
prize an eternal kingdom in the heavens. 

The last number of the Appendix introduces a most 
worthy triumvirate of your father's friends, following 
him through the same heroic path> to an end like his ; 
and with pleasure pouring forth their lives in blood, 
for the rescue and preservation of their dearer country. 
And I trust, the eloquence of their examples will be 
prevalent with many, to emulate the many virtues for 
which they were conspicuous. 

My hopes, Sir, that all these powerful motives 
will especially have their full efficacy on you, are 
greatly encouraged by the certainty which I have 
of your being well acquainted with the evidence of 
Christianity in its full extent ; a criminal ignorance of 
which, in the midst of great advantages for learning 
them, leaves so many of our young people a prey to 
deism, and so to vice and ruin, which generally bring 
up its rear. My life would be a continual burthen to 
me, if I had not a consciousness in the sight of God, 
that, during the years in which the important trust of 
your education was committed to my care, I had laid 
before you the proofs both of natural and revealed re- 
ligion, in what I assuredly esteem to be, with regard to 
the judgment, if they are carefully examined, an irre- 
sistible light ; and that I had endeavoured to attend 
them with those addresses which might be most likely 
to impress your heart. You have not, dear Sir, for- 
gotten, and I am confident you can never entirely for- 
get, the assiduity with which I have laboured to form 
your mind, not only to what might be ornamental to 
you in human life, but, above all, to a true taste of 
what is really excellent, and an early contempt of 
those vanities by waich the generality of our youth, 
especially in your station, are debased, enervated, and 
undone. My private, as well as public addresses for 
this purpose, will, I know, be remembered by you, and 
the tears of tenderness with which they have so often 
been accompanied : And may they be so remembered, 
A 2 



¥ DEDICATION* 

that they who are most tenderly concerned, may be^ 
comforted under the loss of such an inestimable friend 
as Colonel Gardiner, by seeing that his character, in 
all its most amiable and resplendent parts, lives in 
you ; and that, how difficult soever it may be to act up 
to that height of expectation, with which the eyes of 
the world will be fixed on the son of such a father, you 
are, in the strength of divine grace, attempting it ; at 
least are following him with generous emulation and 
with daily solicitude, that the steps may be less 
unequal ! 

May the Lord God of your father, and I will add, of 
both your pious and honourable parents, animate your 
heart more and more with such views and sentiments 
as these ! May he guard your life amidst every scene 
of danger, to be a protection and blessing to those that 
are yet unborn ; and may he give you, in some fai* 
distant period of time, to resign it by a gentler dissolu- 
tion than the hero from whom you sprung ; or, if un- 
erring Wisdom appoint otherwise, to end it with equ^l 
glory I 

I am, dear Sir, 

Your ever faithful, 

Affectionate Friend, and 

Obliged humble Servant, 

P. DODDRIDGE. 

Northampton, July I> 1747. 



LIFE 

OF THE HONOURABLE 

COLONEL JAMES GARDINER. 



WHEN I promised the public some larger 
account of the life and character of this illustri- 
ous person, than I could conveniently insert in 
my sermon on the sad occasion of his death, I 
was secure, that if Providence continued my 
capacity of writing, I should not wholly disap- 
point the expectation. For I was furnislied 
with a variety of particulars, which appeared to 
me worthy of general notice, in consequence of 
that intimate friendship with which he had hon- 
oured me during the six last years of his life ; a 
friendship which led him to open his heart to 
me in repeated conversations, with an unbound- 
ed confidence, (as he then assured me, beyond 
what he had used with any other man living) 
so far as religious experiences were concerned : 
And 1 had also received several very valuable 
letters from him, during the time of our absence 
from each other, which contained most genuine 
and edif) ing traces of his christian character. 
But I hoped farther to learn many valuable par- 
'ticulars from the papers of his own closet ; and 



8 COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 

from his letters to other friends, as well as from 
what they more circumstantially knew concern- 
ing him : I therefore determined to delay the 
execution of my promise, till I could enjoy these 
advantages for performing it in the most satis- 
factory manner ; nor have I, on the whole, rea- 
son to regret that determination. 

I shall not trouble the reader with all the 
causes which concurred to retard these expect- 
ed assistances for almost a whole year : the 
chief of them were the tedious languishing ill- 
ness of his afflicted lady, through whose hands 
it w as proper the papers should pass ; together 
with the confusion into which the rebels had 
thrown them, when they ransacked his seat at 
Bankton, where most of them were deposited. 
But having now received such of them as have 
escaped their voracious hands, and could con- 
veniently be collected and transmitted, I set 
myself with the greatest pleasure to perform, 
what I esteem, not merely a tribute of gratitude 
to the memory of my invaluable friend, (though 
never was the memory of any mortal man more 
precious and sacred to me) but out of duty to 
God, and to my fellow creatures : for 1 have a 
most cheerful hope, that the narrative I am now 
to write, will, under the divine blessing, be a 
means of spreading, what of all things in the 
world every benevolent heart will most desire 
to spread, a warm and lively sense of religion. 

My own heart has been so much edified and 
animated, by what I have read in the memoirs 
of persons who have been eminent for wisdom 
and piety, that I cannot but wish the treasure 



COL. GA-RDINER^S LIFE. 9 

may be more and more increased : and I would 
hope, the world may gather the like valuable 
fruits from the Life 1 am now attempting ; not 
only as it will contain very singular circum- 
stances, which may excite a general curiosity, 
but as it comes attended with some other partic-. 
ular advantages. 

The reader is here to survey a character of 
such eminent and various goodness, as might 
demand veneration, and inspire him with a de- 
sire to imitate it too, had it appeared in the ob- 
scurest rank : but it will surely command some 
particular regard, when viewed in so elevated 
and important a station ; especially as it shone, 
not in ecclesiastical, but military life, where the 
temptations are so many, and the prevalency of 
the contrary character so great, that it may seem 
no inconsiderable praise and felicity to be free 
from dissolute vice, and to retain what in most 
other professions might be esteemed only a me- 
diocrity of virtue. It may surely with the high- 
est justice be expected, that the title and brave- 
ry of Colonel Gardiner will invite many of our 
officers and soldiers, to whom his name has 
been long honourable and dear, to peruse this 
account of him with some peculiar attention : 
in consequence of which, it may be a means of 
increasing the number, and brightening the 
character, of those who are already adorning 
their office, their country, and their religion ; 
and of reclaiming those, who will see rather 
what they ought to be, than what they are. On 
the whole, to xh^ gentlemen of the s%vord^ I would 
particularly offer these memoirs, as theirs by so 



10 COL. GARDINER^S LIFE. 

distinguished a tide : yet I am firmly persuaded 
there are none whose office is so sacred, or 
whose proficiency in the religious life is so ad- 
vanced, but they may find something to demand 
their thankfulness, and to awaken their emula- 
tion. 

Col. James Gardiner, of whom we write, 
was the son of Capt. Patrick Gardiner, of the 
family of Torwood-head, by Mrs. Mary Hodge, 
of the family of Gladsmuir. The Captain, who 
was master of a handsome estate, served many 
years in the army of King William and Queen 
Anne, and died abroad with the British forces 
in Germany, soon after the batde of Hoch- 
stedt, through the fatigues he underwent in the 
duties of that celebrated campaign. He had a 
company in the regiment of foot, once com- 
manded by Colonel Hodge, his valiant brother 
in law, who w^as slain at the head of that regi- 
ment, my memorial from Scotland says, at the 
battle of Steenkirk, which was fought in the 
year 1692, 

Mrs. Gardiner, our Colonel's mother, was a 
lady of a very valuable character ; but it pleas- 
ed God to exercise her with very uncommon 
trials : for she not only lost her husband and 
her brother in the service of their country, as 
before related, but also her eldest son, Mr. 
Robert Gardiner, on the day which completed 
the sixteenth year of his age, at the siege of 
Namur, in 1695. But there is reason to be- 
lieve, God blessed these various and heavy af- 
flictions, as the means of forming her to that 



COL. Gardiner's life. 11 

eminent degree of piety, which will render her 
memory honourable as long as it continues. 

Her second son, the worthy person of whom 
I am now to give a more particular account, 
was born at Carriden in Linlithgowshire, on 
the 10th of January, A. D. 1687-8, the mem- 
orable year of that glorious Revolution which 
he justly esteemed among the happiest of all 
events ; so that, when he was slain in the de- 
fence of those liberties which God then, by so 
gracious a providence, rescued from utter de- 
struction, i. e. on the 21st of September, 1745, 
he was aged fifty-seven years, eight months, 
and eleven days. 

The annual return of his birth-day was ob- 
served by him, in the later and better years of 
his life, in a manner very different from what 
is commonly practised ; for instead of making 
it a day of festivity, I am told, he rather distin- 
guished it as a season of more than ordinary 
humiliation before God ; both in commemo- 
ration of those mercies which he received in 
the first opening of life, and under an affection- 
ate sense, as well as of his long alienation from 
the Great Author and support of his being, 
and of the many imperfections which he la- 
mented in the best of his days and services. 

I have not met with many things remark- 
able concerning the early years of his life, only 
that his mother took care to instruct him with 
great tenderness and affection in the principles 
of true Christianity. He was also trained up in 
human literature at the school at Linlithgow, 
where he made a very considerable progress in 



12 COL, Gardiner's life» 

the languages. I remember to have heard him 
quote some passages of the Latm classics very 
pertinently ; though his employment in life, 
and the various turns which his mind took un- 
der different impulses hi succeeding years, 
prevented him from cultivating such studies. 

The good effects of his mother's prudent 
and exemplary care were not so conspicuous 
as she wished and hoped in the younger part 
of her son's life ; yet there is great reasoji to 
believe they were not entirely lost. As they 
were probably the occasion of many convic- 
tions, which in his younger years were over- 
borne ; so I doubt not, that when religious im- 
pressions took that strong hold of his heart, 
\\hich th '^^L. ards did, that stock of know- 
ledge whicn nad been so early laid up in his 
mind was found of considerable service. And 
I have heard him make the observation, as an 
encouragement to parents and other pious 
friends, to do their duty, and to hope for those 
good consequences of it w hich may not imme- 
diately appear. 

Could his mother, or a very religious 
aunt, (of w^hose good instructions and exhorta- 
tions I have often heard him speak w^ith pleas- 
ure) have prevailed, he would not have thought 
of a military life : from which it is no wonder 
these ladies endeavoured to dissuade him, con- 
sidering the mournful experience they had of 
the dangers attending it, and the dear relatives 
they had lost already by it. But it suited his 
taste ; and the ardour of his spirit, animated by 
the persuasions of a friend^ who greatly urged 



'col. gardiner^s life. 13 

it,^ was not to be restrained. Nor will the 
reader wonder, that, thus excited and support- 
ed, it easily overbore their tender remonstances, 
when he knows that this lively youth fought 
three duels before he attained to the stature of a 
man, in one of which, when he was but eight 
years old, he received, from a boy much older 
than himself, a wound in his right cheek, the 
scar of which was always very apparent. The 
false sense of honour which instigated him to it 
might seem indeed something excusable, in 
these unripened years, and considering the 
profession of his father, brother, and uncle ; 
but I have often heard him mention this rash- 
ness with that regret which the reflex ' ' Avould 
naturally give to so wise and goou - ..^aii in the 
maturity of life. And I have been informed, 
that after his remarkable conversion, he declin- 
ed accepting a challenge, with this calm and 
truly great reply, which in a man of his experi- 
enced bravery was exceeding graceful : *' I 
fear sinning, though you know I do not fear 
fighting." 

He served first as a Cadet, which must 
have been very early : and then at fourteen 
years old he bore an Ensign's commission in a 
Scotch regiment in the Dutch service, in which 
he continued till the year 1702, when (if my 
information be right) he received an Ensign's 
commission from Queen Anne, which he bore 
in the batde of Ramillies, being then in the 

* I suppose this to have heen Brigadier General Rue, who 
had from hijS childhood a pecvUiar affection for him. 
B 



14 COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 

nineteenth year of his age. In this ever mem- 
orable action, he received a wound in his mouth 
by a musket-ball, vi^hich hath often been re- 
ported to be the occasion of his conversion. 
That report was a mistaken one ; but as some 
very remarkable circumstances attended this 
affair, which I have had the pleasure of hearing 
more than once from his own mouth, I hope 
my reader will excuse me if I give him so un- 
common a story at large. 

Our young officer was of a party in the 
Forlorn Hope, and was commanded on what 
seemed almost a desperate service, to dispos- 
sess the French of the church-yard atRamillies, 
where a considerable number of them were 
posted to remarkable advantage. They suc- 
ceeded much better than was expected ; and it 
may be w^ell supposed that Mr. Gardiner, who 
had before been in several encounters, and had 
the view of making his fortune to animate the 
natural intrepidity of his spirit, was glad of 
such an opportunity of signalizing himself. 
Accordingly he had planted his colours on an 
advanced ground ; and while he was calling to 
his men, (probably in that horrid language 
which is so peculiar a disgrace to our soldiery, 
^nd so absurdly common in such articles of 
extreme danger,) he received a shot into his 
mouth, which, without beating out any of his 
teeth, or touching the fore part of his tongue, 
went through his neck, and came out about an 
inch and an half on the left side of the vertebrae. 
Not feeling at first the pain of the stroke, he 
w^ondered what was become of the ball ; and 



COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 15 

in the wildness of his surprise began to suspect 
he hi\d swallowed it ; but dropping soon after, 
he traced the passage of it by his finger, when 
he could discover it no other way ; which I 
mention as one circumstance among many 
which occur to make it probable that the great- 
er part of those who fall in battle by these in- 
struments of death feel very little anguish from 
the most mortal wounds. 

This accident happened about five or six 
in the evening, on the 23d day of May, in the 
year 1706 ; and the army pursuing its advan- 
tages against the French, without ever regard- 
ing the wounded, (which was, it seems, the 
Duke of Marlborough's constant method) our 
young officer lay all night in the field, agitated, 
as may well be supposed, with a great variety 
of thoughts. He assured me, that when he 
reflected upon the circumstances of his wound, 
that a ball should, as he then conceived it, go 
through his head without killing him, he 
thought God had preserved him by miracle ; 
and therefore assuredly concluded that he 
should live, abandoned and desperate as his 
state then seemed to be. Yet, (which to me 
appeared very astonishing,) he had little 
thoughts of humbling himself before God, and 
returning to him after the wanderings of a life 
so licentiously begun. But expecting to re- 
cover, his mind was taken up with contriv- 
ances to secure his gold, of which he had a 
good deal about him ; and he had recourse to 
a very odd expedient, which proved successful. 
Expecting to be stripped, he first took out a 



16 COL. GARDINER'S LIJ^E. 

handful of that clotted gore, of which he Was 
frequently obliged to clear his mouth, or he 
would have been choked ; and putting it into 
his left hand, he took out his money, (which I 
think was-about 19 pistoles,) and shutting his 
hand, and besmearing the back part of it with 
blood, he kept it in this position till the blood 
dried in such a manner that his hand could not 
easily fall open, though any sudden surprise 
should happen, in which he might lose the 
presence of mind which that concealment oth- 
erwise would have required. 

In the morning, the French, who were 
masters of the spot, though their forces were 
defeated at some distance, came to plunder the 
slain ; and seeing him to appearance almost 
expiring, one of them was just applying a 
sword to his breast, to destroy the little re- 
mainder of life, when, in the critical moment, 
upon which all the extraordinary events of 
such a life as his afterwards proved, were sus- 
pended, a Cordelier, w ho attended the plun- 
derers, interposed, taking him by his dress for 
a Frenchman, and said, "Do not kill that 
poor child." Our young soldier heard all 
that passed, though he was not able to speak 
one word ; and, opening his eyes, made a sign 
for something to drink. They gave him a sup 
of some spirituous liquor which happened to 
be at hand ; by which, he said, he found a 
more sensible refreshment than he could re- 
member from any thing he had tasted either 
before or since. Then signifying to the Fnar 
to lean down his ear to his mouth, he employed 



COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 17 

the first efforts of his feeble breath in telling 
him, (what, alas ! was a contrived falsehood,) 
that he was nephew to the governor of Huy, a 
neutral town in the neighbourhood ; and that, 
if he could take any method of conveying him 
thither, he did not doubt but his uncle would 
liberally reward him. He had indeed a friend 
at Huy, (who, I think, was governor, and, if I 
mistake not, had been acquainted with the 
Captain his father,) from whom he expected a 
kind reception ; but the relation was only pre- 
tended. On hearing this, they laid him on a 
sort of hand-barrow, and sent him by a file of 
musqueteers toward the place ; but the men 
lost their way, and got into a wood towards 
the evening, in. which they were obliged to con- 
tinue all night. The poor patient's wound 
being still undressed, it is not to be wondered 
that by this time it raged violently. The an- 
guish of it engaged him earnestly to beg that 
they would either kill him outright, or leave 
him there to die, without the torture of any 
farther motion ; and indeed they were obliged 
to rest for a considerable time, on account of 
their own weariness. Thus he spent the sec- 
ond night in the open air, without any thing 
more than a common bandage to staunch the 
blood. He hath often mentioned it as a most 
astonishing providence, that he did not bleed 
to death ; which, under God, he ascribed to 
the remarkable coldness of these two nights. 

Judging it quite unsafe to attempt car- 
rying him to Huy, from whence they were now 



18 GOL. GARDINER'S LIFE, 

several miles distant, his convoy took him ear- 
ly in the morning to a convent in the neighbour- 
hood, where he was hospitably received, and 
treated with great kindness and tenderness* 
But the cure of his wound was committed to 
an ignorant barber- surgeon, who lived near the 
house ; the best shift that could then be made, 
at a time when, it may easily be supposed, per- 
sons of ability in their profession had their 
hands full of employment. The tent which this 
artist applied, was almost like a peg driven in- 
to the wound ; and gentlemen of skill and ex* 
perience, when they came to hear of the man- 
ner in which he was treated, wondered how he 
could possibly survive such management. But, 
by the blessing of God, on these applications, 
rough as they were, he recovered in a few 
months. The Lady Abbess, who called him 
her son, treated him with the affection and care 
of a mother ; and he always declared, that ev- 
ery thing which he saw within these walls was 
conducted with the strictest decency and deco- 
rum. He received a great many devout ad- 
monitions from the ladies there ; and they would 
fain have persuaded him to acknowledge what 
they thought so miraculous a deliverance, by 
embracing the Catholic Faith, as they were 
pleased to call it. But they could not succeed ; 
for though no religion lay near his heart, yet 
he had too much of the spirit of a gentleman, 
lightly to change that form of religion which he 
wore (as it were) loose about him, as well as 
too much good sense to swallow those mon- 
strous absurdities of popery which immediate-' 



COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 19 

ly presented themselves to him, unacquainted 
as he was with the niceties of the controversy. 
When his Uberty was regained by an 
exchange of prisoners, and his heahh thorough- 
ly estabUshed, he was far from rendering unto 
the Lord according to that wonderful display 
of divine mercy which he had experienced. I 
know very little of the particulars of those wild, 
thoughtless, and wretched years, which lay be- 
tween the 19th and the 30th of his life ; except 
it be, that he frequently experienced the divine 
goodness in renewed instances, particularly in 
preserving him in several hot military actions, 
in all which he never received so much as a 
wound after this, forward as he was in tempt- 
ing danger ; and yet, that all these years were 
spent in an entire alienation from God, and an 
eager pursuit of animal pleasure, as his supreme 
good. The series of criminal amours in which 
he was almost incessantly engaged during this 
time, must probably have afforded some remark- 
able adventures and occurrences ; but the mem* 
ory of them is perished. Nor do I think it un- 
w^orthy notice here, that amidst all the intimacy 
of our friendship, and the many hours of cheer- 
fill as well as serious converse which we spent 
together, I never remember to have heard him 
speak of any of these intrigues, otherwise than 
in the general with deep and solemn abhor- 
rence. This I the rather mention, as it seem- 
ed a most genuine proof of his unfeigned re- 
pentance ; which, I think, there is great reason 
to suspect, when people seem to take a pleasure 
in relating and describing scenes of vicious in- 



20 COL. GARDIf^ER's LIFEt 

diligence, which yet they profess to have dis- 
approved and forsaken. 

Amidst all these pernicious wanderings 
froni the paths of religion, virtue, and happiness, 
he approved himself so well in his military 
character, that he was made a lieutenant in that 
year, viz. 1706 : and I am told, he was very 
quickly promoted to a cornet's commission in 
Lord Stair's regiment of the Scotch Greys ; 
and on the 31st of Jan. 1714-15, was made cap- 
tain-lieutenant in Colonel Ker's regiment of 
dragoons. He had the honour of being known 
to the Earl of Stair some time before, and was 
made his aid-de-camp ; and when, upon his 
Lordship's being appointed ambassador from 
his late majesty to the court of France, he made 
so splendid an entrance into Paris, Captain 
Gardiner was his master of the horse ; and I 
have been told, that a great deal of the care of 
that admirably well adjusted ceremony fell upon 
him ; so that he gained great credit by the man- 
ner in which he conducted it. Under the be- 
nign influences of his Lordship's favour (which 
to the last day of his life he retained) a captain's 
commission was procured for him (dated July 
22d, in the year 1715) in the regiment of drag- 
oons, commanded by Colonel Stanhope, (now 
Earl of Harrington ;) and, in the year 1717, he 
was advanced to the majority of that regiment ; 
in which office he continued till it was reduced 
on November 10th, 1718, when he was put out 
of commission. But then his Majesty, King 
George I. was so thoroughly apprised of his 
faithful and important services, that he gav^ 



COL. GARDINER'S LIFE* 2l 

him his sign manual, entitling him to the first 
majority that should become vacant in any regi- 
ment of horse or dragoons, which happened 
about five years after to be in Croft's regiment 
of dragoons, in which he received a commis- 
sion, dated 1st June, 1724 ; and on the 20th of 
July the same year he was made major of an 
older regiment, commanded by the Earl of 
Stair. 

As I am now speaking of so many of 
his military preferments, I will dispatch the ac- 
count of them, by observing, that on the 24th 
January, 1729-30, he was advanced to the rank 
of Lieutenant-Colonel in the same regiment, 
long under the command of Lord Cadogan ; 
with whose friendship this brave and vigilant 
officer w^as also honoured for many years. And 
he continued in this rank and regiment till the 
19th of April, 1743, when he received a Colo- 
nel's commission over a regiment of dragoons, 
lately commanded by Brigadier Bland ; at the 
head of which he valiantly fell, in the defence 
of his sovereign and his country, about tw^o 
years and a half after he received it. 

We wall now return to that period of his 
life which passed at Paris, the scene of such re- 
markable and important events. He continued, 
(if I remember right,) several years under the 
roof of the brave and generous Earl of Stair ; 
to whom he endeavoured to approve himself by 
every instance of diligent and faithful service : 
And his Lordship gave no inconsiderable proof 
of the dependence which he had upon him, 
when, in the beginning of the year 1715, he en- 



22 COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 

trusted him with the important dispatches relat- 
ing to a discovery, which, by a series of admira- 
ble policy, he had made of a design which the 
French king was then forming for invading 
Great Britain, in favour of the pretender ; in 
which the French apprehended they w^ere so 
sure of success, that it seemed a point of friend- 
ship in one of the chief counsellors of that court, 
to dissuade a dependent of his from accepting 
some employment under his Britannic Majesty, 
w^hen proposed by his envoy there ; because, 
it was said, that in less than six weeks there 
would be a revolution in favour of what they 
called the family of the Stuarts. The Captain 
dispatched his journey with the utmost speed ; 
a variety of circumstances happily concurred to 
accelerate it ; and they who remember how 
soon the regiments which that emergency re- 
quired were raised and armed, will, I doubt not,, 
esteem it a memorable instance, both of the 
most cordial zeal in the friends of the govern- 
ment, and of the gracious care of Divine Provi- 
dence over the house of Hanover, and the Brit- 
ish liberties, so inseparably connected with 
its interest. ; 

While Captain Gardiner was at London, 
in one of the journies he made upon this occa- 
sion, he, with that frankness which was natur- 
al to him, and which in those days was not al- 
ways under the most prudent restraint, ventur- 
ed to predict, from what he knew of the bad 
state of the French king's health, that he would 
not live six weeks. This was made known by 
some spies who were at St. James's, and carae 



COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 23 

to be reported at the court of Versailles ; for he 
received letters from some friends at Paris, ad- 
vising him not to return thither, unless he could 
reconcile himself to a lodging in the Bastile. 
But he was soon free from that apprehension ; 
for, if I mistake not, before half that time was 
accomplished, Lewis XIV. died ;^ and, it is 
generally thought, his death was hastened by a 
very accidental circumstance, which had some 
reference to the Captain's prophecy : For the 
last time he ever dined in public, which was a 
very little while after the report of it had been 
made there, he happened to discover our British 
envoy among the spectators. The penetration 
of this illustrious person was too great, and his 
attachment to the interest of his royal master 
too well known, not to render him very disa- 
greeable to that crafty and tyrannical prince, 
whom God had so long suffered to be the dis- 
grace of monarchy and the scourge of Europe. 
He at first appeared very languid, as indeed he 
was ; but on casting his eye upon the Earl of 
Stair, he affected to appear before him in a 
much better state of health than he really was ; 
and therefore, as if he had been awakened on a 
sudden from some deep reverie, immediately 
put himself into an erect posture, called up a 
laboured vivacity into his countenance, and eat 
much more heartily than was by any means ad- 
viseable, repeating it two or three times to a no- 
bleman, (I think the duke of Bourbon,) then 
in waiting, " Methinks I eat very well for a 

* September 1, 1715. 



24 COL* GARDINER'S LIFE. 

man who is to die so soon.''^ But this inroad 
upon that regularity of living which he had for 
some time observed, agreed so ill with him, 
that he never recovered this meal, but died in 
less than a fortnight. This gave occasion for 
some humorous people to say, that old Lewis, 
after all, w^as killed by a Briton. But if this 
story be true, (which I think there can be no 
room to doubt, as the Colonel, from whom I 
have often heard it, though absent, could 
scarce be misinformed,) it might more proper- 
ly be said that he fell by his own vanity ; in 
which view I thought it so remarkable, as not 
to be unworthy a place in these memoirs. 

The Captain quickly returned, and con- 
tinned, with small interruptions, at Paris, at 
least till the year 1720, and how much longer 
I do not certainly know. The Earl's favour and 
generosity made him easy in his affairs, though 
he was (as has been observed before) part of 
the time out of commission, by breaking the 
regiment to which he belonged, of which be- 
fore he was major. This was, in all probabil- 
ity, the gayest part of his life, and the most 
criminal. Whatever wise and good examples 
he might find in the family where he had the 
honour to reside, it is certain that the French 
court, during the regency of the Duke of Or- 
leans, w^as one of the most dissolute under 
heaven. What, by a wretched abuse of lan^ 
guage, have been called intrigues of love and 
gallantry, were so entirely to the Major's then 

* l\ me semble, que je a© mang;e pas mal pour un hona.uic 
<jui devoit mourir si tot. 



COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 25 

degenerate taste, that, if not the whole business, 
at least the whole happiness of his life consisted 
in them : and he had now too much leisure for 
one who was so prone to abuse it. His fine 
constitution, than which perhaps there was 
hardly ever a better, gave him great opportuni- 
ties of indulging himself in these excesses ; and 
his good spirits enabled him to pursue his 
pleasures of every kind, in so alert and sprightly 
a manner, that multitudes envied him, and 
called him, by a dreadful kind of comphment, 
the happy rake. 

Yet still the checks of conscience, and 
some remaining principles of so good an edu- 
cation, would break in upon his most licen- 
tious hours ; and I particularly remember, he 
told me, that when some of his dissolute com- 
panions were once congratulating him on liis 
distinguished felicity, a dog happening at that 
time to come into the room, he could not for- 
bear groaning inwardly, and saying to himself, 
''Oh that I vv^ere that dog!'' Such then was 
his happiness ; and such perhaps is that of hun- 
dreds more, who bear themselves highest in 
the ajn tempt of religion, and glory in that infa- 
mous servitude which they affect to call liberty. 
But these remonstrances'^ of reason and con- 
science were in vain ; and, in short, he carried 
things so far in this wretched part of his life, 
that I am well assured, some sober English 
gentlemen, who made no great pretences to re- 
ligion, how agreeable soever he might have 
been to them on other accounts, rather declin- 



2'6 COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 

ed than sought his company, as fearing they 
might have iDeen insnared and corrupted by it. 
Yet I cannot find, that in these most 
abandoned days, he was fond of drinking. In- 
deed he never had any natural relish for that 
kind of intemperance, from which he used to 
think a manly pride might be sufficient to pre- 
serve persons of sense and spirit ; as by it they 
gave up every thing that distinguishes them 
from the meanest of their species, or indeed 
from animals the most below it ; so that, if he 
ever fell into any excesses of this kind, it was 
merely out of complaisance to his company, 
and that he might not appear stiff and singular. 
His frank, obliging, and generous temper, 
procured him many friends ; and these prmci- 
ples which rendered him amiable to others, not 
being under the direction of true wisdom and 
piety, sometimes made him, in the ways of 
living he pursued, more uneasy to himself than 
he might perhaps have been if he could entirely 
have outgrown them ; especially as he was 
never a sceptic in his principles, but still re- 
tained a secret apprehension, that natural and 
revealed religion, though he did not much 
care to think of either, were founded in truth. 
And with this conviction, his notorious viola- 
tions of the most essential precepts of both 
could not but occasion some secret misgivmgs 
of heart. His continual neglect of the great 
Author of his being, of whose perfections he 
could not doubt, and to whom he knew himself 
to be under daily and perpetual obligations, 
o-ave him, in some moments of involuntary rc^ 



COL, GARDINER'S LIFE. 27 

flection, inexpressible remorse : and this, at 
times, wrought upon him to such a degree, 
that he resolved he would attempt to pay him 
some acknowledgments. Accordingly, for a 
few mornings he did it ; repeating in retirement 
some passages out of the Psalms, and perhaps 
other scriptures, which he still retained in his 
memory 1 and owning, in a few strong words, 
the many mercies and deliverances he had re- 
ceived, and the ill returns he had made for them. 
I find, among the other papers trans- 
mitted to me, the following verses, w^hich I 
have heard him repeat, as what had impressed 
him a good deal in his unconverted state : and as 
I suppose they did something towards setting 
him on this effort towards devotion, and might 
probably furnish out a part of these orisons, I 
hope I need make no apology to my reader for 
inserting them, especially as I do not recollect 
that I have seen them any where else. 

Attend my soul ! The early birds Inspire 
My grov'ling thoughts with pure celestial fire : 
They from their temp' rate sleep awake, and pay 
Their thankful anthems for the new-born day. 
See how the tuneful lark is mounted high^ 
And, poet-like, salutes the eastern sky ! 
He warbles thro' the fragrant air his lays. 
And seems the beauties of the morn to praise. 
But man, more void of gratitude, awakes. 
And gives no thanks for the sweet rest he takes ; 
Looks on the glorious sun's new kindled flame 
Without one thought of him from whom it came. 
The wretch unhallow'd does the day begin ; 
Shakes off his sleep, but shakes not off his sin. 

But these strains were too devout to con- 
tinue long in a heart as yet quite unsancti- 



28 COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 

fied ; for how readily soever he could repeat 
such acknowledgments of the divine power, 
presence, and goodness, and own his own fol- 
lies and ifaults, he was stopt short by the re- 
monstrances of his conscience, as to the flagrant 
absurdity of confessing sins he did not desire 
to forsake, and of pretending to praise God for 
his mercies, when he did not endeavour to live 
to his service, and to behave in such a manner 
as gratitude, if sincere, would plainly dictate. 
A model of devotion, where such sentiments 
made no part, his good sense could not digest ; 
and the use of such language before an heart- 
searching God, merely as an hypocritical form, 
while the sentiments of his soul were contrary 
to it, justly appeared to him such daring pro- 
faneness, that, irregular as the state of his mind 
was, the thought of it struck him with horror. 
He therefore determined to make no more at- 
tempts of this sort ; and was perhaps one of 
the first that deliberately laid aside prayer, from 
some sense of God's omniscience, and some 
natural principle of honour and conscience. 

These secret debates with himself, and 
ineffectual efforts, would sometimes return : 
but they were overborne again and again by 
the force of temptation ; and it is no wonder, 
that in consequence of them his heart grew yet 
harder. Nor was it softened or awakened by 
some very memorable deliverances, which at 
this time he received. He was in extreme dan- 
ger by a fall from his horse, as he was riding 
post, (I think, in the streets of Calais,) when 
going down a hill, the horse threw hnn over his 



COL. Gardiner's liI'E. 29 

head, and pitched over him ; so that, when he 
rose, the beast lay beyond him, and almost dead. 
Yet, though he received irot the least harm, it 
made no serious impression on his mind. In 
his return from England in the packet boat, (if 
I remember right, but a few weeks after tlie 
former accident,) a violent storm, that drove 
them up to Harwich, tossed them from thence 
for several hours in a dark night on the coast 
of Holland, and brought them into such ex- 
tremity, that the captain of the vessel urged him 
to go to prayers immediately, if he ever intend- 
ed to do it at all ; for he concluded they would 
in a few minutes be at the bottom of the sea. 
In this circumstance he did pray, and that very 
fervently too ; and it was very remarkable, that 
while he was crying to God for deliverance, 
the wind fell, and quickly after they arrived at 
Calais. But the major was so little affected 
with vvhat had befallen him, that when some of 
his gay friends, on hearing the story, rallied 
him upon the efficacy of his prayers, he excus- 
ed himself from the scandal of being thought 
much in earnest, by saying, '^ that it was at mid- 
night, and an hour when his good mother and 
aunt were asleep, or else he should have left 
that part of the business to them :" A speech 
which I should not have mentioned, but as it 
shews in so lively a view the wretched situation 
of his mind at that time, though his great de- 
liverance from the power of darkness was then 
nearly approaching. He recounted these things 
to me with the greatest humility, as shewing 
c 2 



30 GOL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 

how Utterly unworthy he was of that miracle of 
divme grace by which he was quickly after 
brought to so true and so prevalent a sense of 
rehgion. 

And now I am come to that astonishing 
part of his story, the account of his conver- 
sion ; which I cannot enter upon without assur- 
ing the reader, that I have sometimes been 
tempted to suppress many circumstances of it ; 
not only as they may seem incredible to some, 
and enthusiastical to others, but as I am very 
sensible they are liable to great abuses ; which 
wgs the reason that he gave me for conceal- 
ing the most extraordinary from many persons 
to whom he mentioned some of the rest. And 
I believe it was this, together with the desire 
of avoiding every thing that might look like 
ostentation on this head, that prevented his leav- 
ing a written account of it ; though I have of- 
ten entreated him to do it ; as I particularly 
remember I did in the very last letter I ever 
wrote him ; and pleaded the possibility of his 
falling amidst those dangers to which I knew 
his valour might in such circumstances natur- 
ally expose him. I was not so happy as to re- 
ceive any answer to this letter, which reached 
him but a few days before his death ; nor can 
I certainly say, whether he had or had not com- 
plied with my request, as it is very possible a 
paper of that kind, if it were written, might be 
lost amidst the ravages which the rebels made 
when they plundered Bankton. 

The story, however, was so remarkable, 
that I had little reason to apprehend I should ever 



31 

forget it ; and yet, to guard against all contin- 
gencies of that kind, I wrote it down that very 
evening, as I had heard it from his own mouth : 
And I have now before me the memoirs of that 
conversation, dated Aug. 14, 1739, which con- 
clude with these words, (which I added, that, 
if we should both have died that night, the 
world might not have lost this edifying and af- 
fecting history, or have wanted any attestation 
of it I was capable of giving.) '' n. b. I have 
written down this account with all the exactness 
I am capable of, and could safely take an oath 
of it, as to the truth of every circumstance, to the 
best of my remembrance, as the Colonel relat- 
ed it to me a few hours ago.'' I do not know 
that I had reviewed this paper since I wrote it, 
till I set myself thus publicly to record this ex- 
traordinary fact : but I find it punctually to 
agree with what I have often related from my 
memory, which I charged carefully with so won- 
derful and important a fact. It is with all so- 
lemnity that I now deliver it down to posterity, 
as in the sight and presence of God ; and I 
chose deliberately to expose myself to those se- 
vere censures, which the haughty, but empty 
scorn of infidelity, or principles nearly approach- 
ing it, and effectually doing its pernicious work, 
may very probably dictate upon the occasion, 
rather than to smother a relation, which may, 
in the judgment of my conscience, be like to 
conduce so much to the glory of God, the hon- 
our of the gospel, and the good of mankind. 
One thing more I will only premise, that I hope 
none who have heard the Colonel himself speak 



32 COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 

something of this wonderful scene, will be 
surprised if they find sonrie new circumstances 
here ; because he assured me, at the time he 
first gave me the whole narration, (which was 
in the very room in which I now write,) that 
he had never imparted it j-o lully to any ir.an liv- 
ing before. Yet, at the same time, he gave me 
full liberty to com.municate it to w homsoever I 
should in my conscience judge itmiglitbe use- 
ful to do it, w hether before or after his death. 
Accordingly, I did, while he was alive, recount 
almost every circumstance I am now going to 
write, to several pious friends : referring them 
at the same tinle to the Colonel himself, w^hen- 
ever they mieht have an opportunity of seeing 
or writing to mm, for a farther confirmation of 
what I told them, if they judged it requisite. 
They glorified God in him ; and I humbly 
hope, many of my readers will also do it. They 
will soon perceive the reason ol so much cau- 
tion in my introduction to this story, for which 
therefore I shall make no further apology.* 

This memorable event happened towards 
the middle of July, 1719; but I cannot 

* It is no small satisfaction to me, since I wrote this, to 
have received a letter from the Rev. Mr. Spears, minister of 
the gospel at Brunlisland, dated Jan. 14, 1746-7, in w hich he 
relates to me this whole story, as he had it from the Colonel's 
own mouth, about four years after he gave me the narration. 
There is not a single circumstance in which either of our nar- 
rations disagree ; and every one of the particulars in mine, 
which seem most astonishing, are attested by this, and some- 
times in stronger words ; one only excepted, on which I shall 
add a short remark when I come to it. As this letter was 
written near Lady Frances Gardiner, at her desire, and attend- 
ed with a postscript fn)m her own hand, this is, in eflect, a suf- 
ficient attestation how . greeable it was to those accounts which 
h^ must have often heard the Colonel give of this matter. 



COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 33 

be exact as to the day. The Major had spent 
the evening (and, if I mistake not, it was the 
Sabbath) in some gay company, and had an un- 
happy assignation with a married woman, of 
what rank or quality I did not particularly in- 
quire, whom he was to attend exactly at twelve. 
The company broke up about eleven ; and not 
judging it convenient to anticipate the tim^ ap- 
pointed, he went into his chamber to kill the 
tedious hour, perhaps with some amusing book, 
or some other way. But it very accidently 
happened, that he took up a religious book, 
which his good mother or aunt had, without 
his knowledge, slipped into his portmanteau. 
It was called, if I remember the title exactly, 
The christian soldier^ or hea'oeii taken by storm ; 
and was written by Mr. Thomas Watson. Gues- 
sing by the title of it that he should find some 
phrases of his own profession spiritualized in a 
manner which he thought might aiFord him 
some diversion, he resolved to dip into it ; but 
he took no serious notice of any thing he read 
in it : And yet, while this book was in his hand, 
an impression was made upon his mind, ( per- 
haps God only knows how,) which drew after 
it a train of the most important and happy con- 
sequences. 

There is indeed a possibility, that while he 
was sitting in this attitude, and reading in this 
careless and profane manner, he might suddenly 
fall asleep, and only dream of what he appre- 
hended he saw. But nothing can be more cer- 
tain, than that, when he gave me this relation, 
he judged himself to have been as broad awake 



34 COL. Gardiner's life. 

during the whole time as he ever was in any 
part of his life ; and he mentioned it to me sev- 
eral times afterwards as what undoubtedly- 
passed, not only in his imagination, but before 
his eyes.^ 

He thought he saw an unusual blaze of light 
fall upon the book while he was reading, which 
he at first imagined might happen by some ac- 
cident in the candle. But lifting up his eyes, 
he apprehended, to his extreme amazement, 
that there was before him, as it were suspended 
in the air, a visible representation of the Lord 
Jesus Christ upon the cross, surrounded on all 
sides with a glory ; and was impressed, as if a 
voice, or something equivalent to a voice, had 
come to him, to this effect, (for he was not con- 
fident as to the very words,) " Oh sinner ! did 
I suffer this for thee, and are these thy returns ?^' 
But whether this were an audible voice, or 
only a strong impression on his mind equally 
striking, he did not seem very confident ; though 
to the best of my remembrance, he rather judg- 
ed it to be the former. Struck with so amaz- 
ing a phenomenon as this, there remained hard- 

* Mr Spears, in the letter mentioned above, where he in- 
troduces the Colonel telling his own story, has these words : 
<« All of a sudden, there was presented, in a very lively man- 
ner, to my view, or to my mind, a representation of my glori- 
ous Redeemer," &c. And this gentleman adds in a parenthe- 
sis, " It was so lively and striking, that he could not tell wheth- 
er it w^as to his bodily eyes, or to those of his mind." This 
makes me think that what I had said to him on the phenomena 
of visions, apparitions, &c. (as being, when most real, super- 
natural impressions on the imaginations, rather than attended 
with any external object,) had some influence upon him. Yet 
still it is evident he looked upon this as a vision, whether it 
were before the eyes, or in the mind, and not as a dream. 



€0L, GARDINER'S LIFE. 35 

ly any life in him ; so that he sunk down in 
the arm-chair in which he sat, and contiimed, 
he knew not exactly how long, insensible : 
(which was one circumstance that made me 
several times take the liberty to suggest that he 
might possibly be all this while asleep.) But 
however that were, he quickly after opened his 
eyes, and saw nothing more than usual. 

It may easily be supposed he was in no con- 
dition to make any observation upon the time 
in which he hid remained in an insensible 
state ; nor did he, throughout the remainder 
of the night, once recollect" that criminal and 
detestable assignation which had before en- 
grossed all his thoughts. He rose in a tumult 
of passions not to be conceived, and walked to 
fro in his chamber, till he was ready to drop 
down, in unutterable astonishment and agony 
of heart, appearing to himself the vilest mon- 
ster in the creation of God, who had all his life 
time been crucifying Christ afresh by his sins, 
and now saw, as he assuredly believed, by 
a miraculous vision, the horror of what he had 
done. With this was connected such a view 
both of the majesty and goodness of God, as 
caused him to loathe and abhor himself, and to 
repent as in dust and ashes. He immediately 
gave judgment against himself, that he was 
most justly worthy of eternal damnation. He 
was astonished that he h^d not been immediate- 
ly struck dead in the midst of his wickedness ; 
and (which I think deserves particular remark) 
though he assuredly believed that he should 
ere long be in hell, and settled it as a point 



36 eoL. Gardiner's life* 

with himself for several months, that the wis- 
dom and justice of God did almost necessarily 
require that such an enormous sinner should 
be made an example of everlasting vengeance, 
and a spectacle as such both to angels and men, 
so that he hardly durst presume to pray for 
pardon : yet what he then suffered v/as not so 
much from the fear of hell, though he concluded 
it would soon be his portion, as from a sense of 
that horrible ingratitude he had shewn to the 
God of his life, and to that blessed Redeemer 
who had been in so affecting a manner set forth 
as crucified before him. 

To this he refers in a letter, dated from 
Douglas, April 1, 1725, communicated to me 
by his Lady ;* but I know not to whom it was 
addressed. His words are these : '' One thing 
relating to my conversion, and a remarkable in- 
stance of the goodness of God to me, the chief 
of sinners, I do not remember that I ever told 
to any person. It was this ; that after the aston- 



"" N. B. Where I make any extracts, as from Colonel 
Gardiner's letters, they are either from originals, which I have 
in my own hands, or from copies which were transmitted to 
me from persons of undoubted credit, chiefly by the Right 
Honourable Lady Frances Gardiner, through the "hands of the 
Rev. Mr. Webster, one of the ministers of Edinburgh. This I 
the rather mention, because some letters have been brought 
to me as Colonel Gardiner's, concerning which T have not only 
been very dubious, but morally certain that they could not 
have been written by him. I have also heard of many who 
have been fond of assuring the world that they were well ac- 
quainted with him, and were near him when he fell, 
whose reports have been most inconsistent with each other, 
as well as contrary to that testimony relating to the circum- 
stances of his death, which, on the whole, appeared to me be- 
yond controversy the most natural and authentic ; from whence 
therefore I shall take my account of that affecting scene. 



COL. GARDINER^S LIFE. 37 

ishing sight I had of my blessed Lord, the ter- 
rible condition in which I was proceeded not so 
much from the terrors of the law, as from a 
sense of having been so ungrateful a monster to 
him whom I thought I saw pierced for my 
transgressions. " I the rather insert these words, 
as they evidently attest the circumstance which 
may seem most amazing in this affair, and con- 
tain so express a declaration of his own appre- 
hension concerning it. 

In this view, it may naturally be supposed 
that he passed the remainder of the night 
waking ; and he could get but little rest in sev- 
eral that followed. His mind was continually 
taken up in reflecting on the divine purity and 
goodness ; the grace which had been proposed 
to him in the gospel, and which he had reject- 
ed ; the singular advantages he had enjoyed 
and abused ; and the many favours of provi- 
dence which he had received, particularly in 
rescuing him from so many imminent dangers 
of death, which he now saw must have been at- 
tended with such dreadful and hopeless de- 
struction. The privileges of his education, 
which he had so much despised, now lay with 
an almost insupportable weight on his mind ; 
and the folly of that career of sinful pleasure, 
which he had so many years been running with 
desperate eagerness and unworthy delight, now 
filled him with indignation against himself, and 
against the great deceiver, by whom (to use his 
own phrase) he had been *'so wretchedly and 
scandalously befooled." This he used often 



S9 COL. Gardiner's life. 

to express in the strongest terms, which I shall 
not repeat so particularly, as I cannot recollect 
some of them. But on the whole, it is certain, 
that by what passed before he left his chamber 
the next day, the whole frame and disposition 
of his soul was new-modelled and changed ; so 
that he became, and continued to the last day of 
his exemplary and truly christian life, the very 
reverse of what he had been before. A variety 
of particulars, which I am afterwards to men- 
tion, will illustrate this in the most convincing 
manner. But I cannot proceed to them, with- 
cut pausing awhile to adore so illustrious an in- 
stance of the power and freedom of divine 
grace, and entreating my reader to reflect upon 
it, that his own heart may be suitably affected ; 
for surely, if the truth of the fact be admitted in 
the lowest views in which it can be placed, 
(that is, supposing the first impression to have 
passed in a dream,) it must be allowed to have 
been little, if any thing, less than miraculous. 
It cannot, in the course of nature, be imagined 
how such a dream should arise in a mind full 
of the most impure ideas and affections, and 
(as he himself often pleaded,) more alienated 
from the thoughts of a crucified Saviour than 
from any other object that can be conceived ; 
nor can we surely suppose it should, without a 
mighty energy of the divine power, be effectu- 
al to produce, not only some transient flow of 
passion, but so entire and so permanent a 
change in character and conduct. 

On the w^hole, therefore, I must beg leave to 
express my own sentiments of the matter^ by 



COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 39 

repeating on this occasion what I wrote several 
years ago, in my eighth sermon on regenera- 
tion, in a passage dictated chiefly by the cir- 
cumstantial knowledge which I had of this 
amazing story, and, methinks, sufficiently vin- 
dicated by it, if it stood entirely alone ; which, 
yet, 1 must take the liberty to say, it does not : 
For I hope the world will be particularly in- 
formed, that there is at least a second, that very 
nearly approaches it, whenever the establish- 
ed church of England shall lose one of its 
brightest living ornaments, and one of the most 
useful members which that, or perhaps any 
other christian communion, can boast : In the 
mean time, may his exemplary life be long con- 
tinued, and his zealous ministry abundantly 
prospered ! I beg my reader's pardon for this 
digression. The passage I referred to above is 
remarkably, though not equally^ applicable to 
both the cases, as it stands in page 2&3 of the 
first edition, and page 160 of the second; un- 
der that head where I am shewing that God 
sometimes accomplishes the great work of 
which we speak by secret and immediate 
impressions on the mind. After pre- 
ceding illustrations, there are the following 
words, on which the Colonel's conversion 
will throw the justest light : ^' Yea, I have 
known those of distinguished genius, polite 
manners, and great experience in human affairs, 
who, after having outgrown all the impressions 
of a religious education, after having been har- 
dened, rather than subdued, by the most sin- 
gular mercies, even various, repeated, andas* 



40 COL. GARDINER^S LIFE. 

tonishing deliverances, which have appeared to 
themselves no less than miraculous ; after hav- 
ing lived for years without God in the world, 
notoriously corrupt themselves, and labouring 
to the utmost to corrupt others, have been stopt 
on a sadden in the full career of their sin, and 
have felt such rays of the divine presence, and of 
redeeming love, darting in upon their minds, al- 
most like lightning from heaven, as have at once 
rouzed, overpowered, and transformed them ; 
so that they have come out of their secret 
chambers with an irreconcileable enmity to those 
vices to which, when they entered them, they 
were the tamest and most abandoned slaves ; 
and have appeared from that very hour the 
votaries, the patrons, die champions of religion ; 
and after a course of the most resolute attach- 
ment to it, in spite of all the reasonings or the 
railleries, the importunities or the reproaches of 
its enemies, they have continued to this day 
some of its brightest ornaments : A change 
which I behold with equal wonder and delig:ht, 
and which, if a nation should join in deriding it, 
I would adore as the finger of God.'' 

The mind of . Major Gardiner continued 
from this remarkable time till towards the end 
of October, (that is, rather more than three 
months, but especially the two first of them) 
in as extraordinary a situation as one can well 
imagine. He knew nothing of the joys arising 
from a sense of pardon ; but, on the contrary, 
for the greater part of that time, and with very 
short intervals of hope toward the end of it, 
took it for granted, that he must, in all proba- 



COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 41 

bilityj quickly perish. Nevertheless, he had 
such a sense of the evil of sin, of the goodness 
of the divine Being, and oi the admirable ten- 
dency of the christian revelation, that he resolv- 
ed to spend the remainder of his life, while 
God continued him out of hell, in as rational 
and as useful a manner as he could ; and to 
continue casting himself at the feet of divine 
mercy, every day, and often in a day, if perad- 
venture there might be hope of pardon, of 
which all that he could say was, that he did not 
absolutely despair. He had at that time such 
a sense of the degeneracy of his own heart, 
that he hardly durst form any determinate reso- 
lution against sin, or pretend to engage himself 
by any vow in the presence of God ; but was 
continually crying to him, that he would deliv-. 
er him from the bondage of corruption. He 
perceived in himself a most surprising alteration 
with regard to the dispositions of his heart ; so 
that, though he felt little of the delights of re- 
ligious duties, he extremely desired opportuni- 
ties of being engaged in them ; and those li- 
centious pleasures, which had before been his 
heaven, were now absolutely his aversion* 
And indeed when I consider how habitual all 
those criminal indulgences were grown to him, 
and that he was now in the prime of life, and all 
this while in high health too, I cannot but be 
astonished to reflect upon it, that he should be 
so wonderfully sanctified in body, as well as in 
soul and spirit, as that, for all the future years 
of his life, he, from that hour, should find so 
D 2 



42 COL* GARDINER'S LIF£t 

constant a disinclination to, and abhorrence of, 
those criminal sensuaUties to which he fancied 
he was before so invincibly impelled by his 
very constitution, that he was used strangely to 
think, and say, that Omnipotence itself could 
not reform him, without destroying that body, 
and giving him another.^ 

Nor was he only delivered from that bond- 
age of corruption, which had been habitual to 
him for so many years, but felt in his breast so 
contrary a disposition, that he was grieved to 
see human nature, in those to whom he was 
almost entirely a stranger, prostituted to such 

* Mr. Spears expresses this wonderful circumstance in 
these remarkable words : " I was (said the Colonel to me)^ 
effectually cured of all inclination to that sin I was so strongly 
addicted to, that I thought nothing but shooting me through 
the head could have cured me of it ; and all desire and incli- 
nation to it was removed, as entirely as if I had been a suck* 
ing child : nor did the temptation return to this day." Mr. 
Webster's words on the same subject are these : " One thing- 
I have heard the Colonel frequently sajT, that he was much ad- 
dicted to impurity before his acquaintance with religion ; but 
that, so soon as he was enlightened from above, he felt the 
power of the Holy Ghost changing his nature so wonderfully^ 
Ihat his sanctification in this respect seemed more remarkable 
than in any other." On which that worthy person makes this 
very reasonable reflection : ** So thorough a change of such a 
polluted nature, evidenced by the most unblemished walk and 
conversation for a long course of years, demonstrates indeed 
the power of the Highest, and leaves no room to doubt of its 
Teality." Mr Speai-s says this happened in three days' time : 
But from what 1 can recollect, all that the Colonel could mean 
by that expression, if he used it, (as I conclude he did,) was, 
that he began to make the observation in the space of three 
days ; whereas, during that time, his thoughts were so taken 
up with the wonderful views presented to his mind, that he 
did not immediately attend to it. If he had within the first 
three days any temptation to seek some ease from the anguish 
©f his mind, in returning to former sensualities, it is a cJrcum- 
staHcc he did not mention to me ; and by what I can recollect 
«f the strain of iiis discourse, he intimated, if he did uotex^ 
press the contrary. 



COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 43- 

low and contemptible pursuits. He therefore 
exerted his natural courage in a very new kind 
of combat ; and became an open advocate for 
religion, in all its principles, so far as he was 
acquainted with them, and all its precepts, re- 
lating to sobriety, righteousness, and godliness. 
Yet he was very desirous and cautious, that he 
might not run into an extreme, and made it 
one of his first petitions to God, the very day 
after these amazing impressions had been 
wrought in his mind, that he might not be suf- 
fered to behave with such an affected strict- 
ness and preciseness, as would lead others about 
him into mistaken notions of religion, and ex- 
pose it to reproach or suspicion, as if it were 
an unlovely or uncomfortable thing. For this 
reason, he endeavoured to appear as cheerful 
in conversation as he conscientiously could ; 
though, in spite of all his precautions, some 
traces of that deep inward sense which he had 
of his guilt and misery would at times appear. 
He made no secret of it, however, that his 
views were entirely changed, though he con- 
cealed the particular circumstances attending 
that change. He told his most intimate com- 
panions freely, that he had reflected on the 
course of life in which he had so long joined 
them, and found it to be folly and madness, un- 
worthy a rational creature, and much more un- 
worthy persons calling themselves christians. 
And he set up his standard upon all occasions, 
against principles of infidelity and practices of 
vice, as determinateiy and as boldly as ever he 



44 COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 

displayed or planted his colours, when he bore 
them with so much honour in the field. 

1 cannot forbear mentioning one struggle of 
this kind, which he described to me, with a 
large detail of circumstances, the first day of 
our acquaintance. There was at that time in 
Paris a certain lady, (whose name, then well 
known in the grand and the gay w^orld, I must 
beg leave to conceal,) who had imbibed the 
principles of Deism, and valued herself much 
upon being an avowed advocate for them. The 
major, with his usual frankness, (though, I 
doubt not, with that politeness of manners 
which was so habitual to him, and which he re- 
tained throughout his whole life,) answered 
her like a man who perfectly saw through the 
fallacy of her arguments, and was grieved to 
the heart for her delusion. On this she briskly 
challenged him to debate the matter at large, 
and to fix upon a day for that purpose, when he 
should dine with her attended with any clergy, 
man he might choose, whether of the Protest- 
ant or Catholic communion. A sense of duty 
would not allow him to decline this challenge ; 
and yet he had no sooner accepted it, but he 
was thrown into great perplexity and distress, 
lest being (as I remember he expressed it when 
he told me the story) only a christian of six 
weeks old, he should prejudice so good a cause 
by his unskilful manner of defending it. How- 
ever, he sought his refuge in earnest and re- 
peated prayers to God, that he who can ordain 
strength, and perfect praise out of the mouth of 
babes and sucklings, would graciously enable 



COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 45 

him, on this occasion, to vindicate his truths in 
a manner which might carry conviction along 
vi^ith it. He then endeavoured to marshal the 
arguments in his own mind as well as he could ; 
and apprehending that he could not speak with 
so much freedom before a number of persons, 
especially before such whose province he might 
in that case seem to invade, if he had not de- 
volved the principal pari of the discourse upon 
them, he easily admitted the apology of a cler- 
gyman or two, to whom he mentioned the af- 
fair, and waited on the lady alone upon the day 
appointed. But his heart was so set upon the 
business, that he came earlier than he was ex- 
pected, and time enough to have two hours dis- 
course before dinner ; nor did he at all decline 
having two young persons nearly related to the 
lady present during the conference. 

The major opened it, with a view of such ar- 
guments for the christian religion as he had di- 
gested in his own mind, to prove that the apos- 
tles were not mistaken themselves, and that they 
could not have intended to impose upon us in 
the accounts they give of the grand facts they 
attest ; with the truth of which facts that of the 
christian religion is most apparently connected. 
And it v/as a great encouragement to him to 
find, that, unaccustomed as he was to discourses 
of this nature, he had an unusual command 
both of thought and expression ; so that he re- 
collected and uttered every thing as he could 
have wished. The lady heard with attention : 
and though he paused between every branch of 
the argument, she did not interrupt the coursQ 



4# COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 

of it till he told her he had finished his design^ 
and waited for her reply. She then produced 
some of her objections, which he took up and 
canvassed in such a manner, that at length she 
burst out into tears, allowed ihe force of his 
arguments and repHes, and appeared for some 
time after so deeply impressed with the conver* 
sat ion, that it was observed^ by several of her 
friends : And there is rc^ason to believe, that 
the impression continued, at least so far as to 
prevent her from ever appearing under the 
character of an unbeliever or a sceptic. 

This is only one specimen among many of 
the battles he w^as almost daily called out to 
fight in the cause of religion and virtue ; with 
relation to which I find him expressing himself 
thus, in a letter to Mrs. Gardiner, his good 
mother, dated from Paris, the 25th of January 
following, that is, 1719-20, in answer to one in 
which she had warned him to expect such 
trials : ^^ I have, (says he,) already met with 
them, and am obliged to fight, and to dispute 
every inch of ground : But all thanks and 
praise to the great Captain of my salvation ; he 
fights for me ; and then it is no wonder that I 
come off more than conqueror.'^ By which 
last expression I suppose he meant to insinuate, 
that he was strengthened and established, rath- 
er than overborne by this opposition. Yet it 
was not immediately that he gained such forti- 
tude. He has often told me how much he felt 
in those days of the emphasis of those well-cho- 
sen words of the apostle, in which he ranks 
the trial of cruel mockjngs with scourgings, 



COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 47 

and bonds, and imprisonments. The con- 
tinual railleries with which he was received in 
almost all companies where he had been 
most familiar before, did often distress him be- 
yond measure ; so that he has several times de- 
clared, he would much rather have marched up 
to a battery of the enemy's cannon, than have 
been obliged so continually as he was to face 
such artillery as this. But, like a brave soldier 
in the first action wherein he is engaged, he 
continued resolute, though shuddering at the 
terror of the assault ; and quickly overcame 
those impressions, which it is not perhaps in 
nature wholly to avoid. And therefore I find 
him, in the letter referred to above, which was 
written about half a year after his conversion, 
^' quite ashamed to think of the uneasiness 
which these things once gave him." In a 
word, he went on, as every resolute christian 
by divine grace may do, till he turned ridicule 
and opposition into respect and veneration. 

But this t^ensible triumph over these difficul- 
ties was not till his christian experience had 
been abundantly advanced, by the blessing of 
God on the sermons he heard, (particularly 
in the Swiss Chapel,) and on the many hours 
which he spent in devout retirement, pouring 
out his whole soul before God in prayer. He 
began, within about two months after his first 
memorable change, to perceive some secret 
dawnings of more cheerful hope, that vile as he 
saw himself to be, (and I believe no words can 
express how vile that was,) he might neverthe- 
less obtain mercy through a Redeemer. And 



48 COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 

at length, if I remember right, about the end 
of October, 1719, he found all the burthen of 
his mind taken off at once, by the powerful im- 
pression of that memorable scripture upon his 
mind, Rom. iii. 25, 26. Whom God hath set 
forth for a propitiation, through faith in his 
bloody to declare his righteousness in the remis- 
sion of sins ^ — that he mi^ht be jiist^ and the jus- 
tifier oj him that belien^eth in Jesus, He had 
used to imagine, that the justice of God requir- 
ed the damnation of so enormous a sinner as 
he saw himself to be : but now he was 
made deeply sensible, that the divine justice 
might be not only vindicated, but glorified in 
saving him by the blood of Jesus, even that 
blood which cleanseth us from all sin. Then 
did he see and feel the riches of redeeming 
love and grace, in such a manner, as not only 
engaged him with the utmost pleasure and con- 
fidence to venture his soul upon it ; but even 
swallowed up, as it were, his whole heart in 
the returns of love, which from that blessed 
time became the genuine and delightful prin- 
ciple of his obedience, and animated him with 
an enlarged heart, to run the way of God's 
commandments. Thus God was pleased (as 
he himself used to speak) in an hour to turn 
his captivity. All the terrors of his former 
state were changed into unutterable joy, which 
kept him almost continually waking for three 
nights together, and yet refreshed him as the 
noblest of cordials. His expressions, though 
naturally very strong, always seemed to be 
swallowed up, when he would describe the 



eOL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 4V 

series of thoughtt hrough which he now passed, 
under the rapturous experience of that joy un- 
speakable, and full of glory, which then seemed 
to overflow his very soul ; as indeed there was 
nothing he seemed to speak of with greater rel- 
ish. And though the first ecstacies of it after- 
wards subsided into a more calm and compos- 
ed delight, yet were the impressions so deep 
and so permanent, that he assured me, on the 
word of a christian and a friend, wonderful as 
it might seem, that for about seven years after 
this, he enjoyed almost an heaven upon earth. 
His soul was so continually filled wiih a sense 
of the love of God in Christ, that it knew little 
interruption, but when necessary converse and 
the duties of his station called off his thoughts 
for a little time ; and when they did so, as 
soon as he was alone, the torrent returned into 
its natural channel again ; so that, from the 
minute of his awakening in the morning, his 
heart was rising to God, and triumphing in 
him ; and these thoughts attended him through 
all the scenes of life, till he lay down on his 
bed again, and a short parenthesis of sleep (for 
it was but a very short one that he allowed him- 
self) invigorated his animal powers for renewing 
them with greater intenseness and sensibility, 

I shall have an opportunity of illustrating this 
in the most convincing manner below, by ex- 
tracts from several letters which he wrote to in- 
timate friends during this happy period of time ; 
letters which breathe a spirit of such sublime 
and fervent piety, as I have seldom met with 
any where else. In these circumstances, it is 

£ 



50 COL. Gardiner's life* 

no wonder that he was greatly delighted w^ith 
Dr. Watts'shnitationofthe 126rhp-alm; since 
it may be questioned whether there ever was a 
person to whom the following stanzas of it were 
more suitable. 

When God revealed his gracious name, 
And chang'd my mournful slate, 

My rapture seem'd a pleasing dream ; 
The grace appeared so great. 

The world beheld the glorious change, 

And did thine hand confess ; 
My tongue broke out in unknown strains, 

And sung surprising grace. 
*^ Great is the work," my neighbours cry'd, 

And own'd the pow'r divine : 
" Great is the work,'* my heart reply'd ; 

" And be the glory thine." 

The Lord can change the darkest skies, 

Can give us day for night : 
Make floods of sacred sorrow rise 

To rivers of delight. 
Let those that sow in sadness wait 

Till the fair harvest come : 
They shall confess their sheaves are great, 

And shout th^ blessings home. 

I have been so happy as to get the sight of 
five original letters, which he wrote to his moth- 
er about this time, which do, in a very lively 
manner, illustrate the surprising change made 
in the whole current of his thoughts and temper 
of his mind. Many of them were written in 
the most hasty manner, just as the courier who 
brought them was perhaps unexpectedly set- 
ting out ; and they relate chiefly to affairs in 
which the public is not at ^all concerned : yet 



COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 51 

there is not one of them in which he has not in- 
serted some warm and genuine sentiment of re- 
ligion. And, indeed, if is very remarkable, that 
though he was pleased to honour me with a great 
many letters, and 1 have seen several more which 
he vvrote to others, some of them on journies, 
where he could have but a few minutes at com- 
mand, yet I cannot recollect, that ever I saw 
any one in which there w as not some trace of 
piety. And the reverend Mr. Webster, who 
was employed to review great numbers of them, 
that he might select such extracts as he should 
think proper to communicate to me, has made 
the same observation.^ 

The major, with great justice, tells the good 
lady, his mother, " that Vv^hen she saw him again, 
she would find the person indeed the same, but 
every thing else entirely changed." And she 
might easily have perceived it of herself, by the 
whole tenor of those letters, which every w^here 
breathe the unaffected spirit of a true christian. 
They are taken up sometimes with giving ad- 
vice and directions concerning some pious and 
charitable contributions ; (one of which I re- 
member amounted to ten guineas, though, as 
he was then out of commission, and had not 
formerly been very frugal, it cannot be suppos- 

* His words are these : " I have read over avast number of 
the colonel's letters, and have not found anyone of them, how- 
ever short, and wrote in the most passing* manner, even when 
posting", but what is expressive of the most passionate breath- 
ings towards his God and Saviour. If the letter consists but 
of two sentences, religion is not forgotten, which doubtless de- 
serves to be carefully remarked as the most uncontested evi- 
dence of a pious mind ever under the warmest impressions of 
divine things.'* 



52 COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 

ed he had much to spare ; ) sometimes in speak- 
ing of the pleasure with which he attended ser- 
anons, and expected sacramental opportunities ; 
and at other times, in exhorting her, establish- 
ed as she was in religion, to labour after a yet 
more exemplary character and conduct, or in 
recommending her to the divine presence and 
blessing, as well as himself to her prayers. 
What satisfaction such letters as these must 
give to a lady of her distinguished piety, who 
had so long wept over this dear and amiable son 
as quite lost to God, and on the < verge of final 
destruction, it is not for me to describe, or in- 
deed to conceive. But hastily as these letters 
were written, only for private view, I will give 
a few specimens from them in his own words ; 
which will serve to illustrate, as well as confirm, 
what I have hinted above, 

*' I must take the liberty," says he, in a letter 
dated on the first day of the new year, or, ac- 
cording to the old style, Dec. 21, 1719, *' to 
entreat you, that you would receive no company 
on the Lord's day. I know you have a great 
many good acquaintance, wath whose dis- 
courses one might be very well edified ; but as 
you cannot keep out and let in whom you 
please, the best way, in my humble opinion, 
will be to see none." In another, of Jan. 25. 
*' I am happier than any one can imagine, ex- 
cept I could put him exucdy in the same situ- 
ation with myself; \^ hich is m hat the world can- 
not give, ai 'd no man ever attained it, unless it 
w ere from above. " In another, dated March 30y 
which \Vas just before a sacrament day, '^ To- 



cot. carbiker's life. BS^ 

morrow, if it please God, I shall be happy, my 
soul being to be fed with the bread of life, 
which came down from heaven. I shall be 
iriiridful of you all there." In another, of Jan. 
29, he thus expresses that indifference for 
wonclly possessions which he so remarkably 
carried through all the remainder of his life : 
^' 1 know the rich are only stewards for the 
poor, and nmst give an account of every pen- 
ny ; therefore the less I have, the more easy 
will it be to render a faithful account of it." 
And, to add no more from these letters at pres- 
ent, in conclusion of one of them, he has these 
comprehensive and solemn words : '' Now 
thai he who is the ease of the afflicred. the sup- 
port of the weak, the wealth of the poor, the 
teacher of the ignorant, the anchor of the fear- 
ful, and the infinite reward of all faithful souls, 
may pour out upon you all his richest bless- 
ings, shall always be the prayer of him who is 
entirely yours, &c." 

To this account of his correspondence with 
his excellent mother, 1 should be glad to add 
a large view of another, to which she introduced 
him, with that reverend and valuable person, 
under whose pastoral care she was placed, I 
mean the justly celebrated Dr. Edmund 
Calamy, to whom she could not but early com- 
municate the joyful news of her son's conver- 
sion. I am not so happy as to be possessed 
of the letters which passed between them, which 
I have reason to believe would make a curious 
and valuable collection : But I have had the 
E 2 



54 COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 

pleasure of receiving, from my worthy and 
amiable friend, the Reverend Mr. Edmund 
Calamy, one of the letters which the Doctor, his 
father, wrote to the major on this wonderful oc* 
casion. I perceive by the contents of it, that it 
w as the first ; and indeed it is dated as early as 
the third of August, 1719, which must be but 
a few days after his own account, dated August 
4th, N. s. could reach England, There is so 
much true religion and good sense in this pa- 
per, and the counsel it suggests may be so 
seasonable to other persons in circumstances 
which bear any resemblance to his, that I make 
no apology to my reader for inserting a large 
extract from it. 

** Dear Sir, — I conceive it will not much 
surprise you to understand that your good 
mother communicated to me your letter to her, 
dated August 4th, n. s. which brought her 
the news you conceive would be so acceptable 
to her. I, \^ho have often been a witness to 
her concern for you on a spiritual account, can 
attest with what joy this news was received 
by her, and imparted to me as a special friend, 
who she knew would bear a part with her on 
such an occasion. And indeed, if, as our Sa- 
viour intimates, Luke xv. 7, 10, there is in 
such cases joy in heaven, and among the angels 
oj God, it may well be supposed, that of a 
pious mother, who has spent so many prayers 
and tears upon you, and has as it m ere travailed 
in birth njoithyoti again^ till Christ %vas formed 
in you, could not be small. You may believe 
n\e if I add, that I also, as a common friend of 



COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 55 

hers and yours, and, which is much more, of 
the Prince of Light, whom you now declare 
you heartily fall in with in opposition to that 
of the dark kingdom, could not but be ten- 
derly affected with an account of it under your 
own hand. My joy on this account was the 
greater, considering the importance of your ca- 
pacity, interests, and prospects ; which in such 
an age as this, may promise most happy con- 
sequences, on your heartily appearing on God's 
side, and embarking in the interest of our dear 
Redeemer. If I have hitherto at all remember- 
ed you at the throne of grace, at your good 
mother's desire, (which you are pleased to take 
notice of with so much respect,) I can assure 
you I shall henceforth be led to do it with more 
concern and particularity, both by duty and in- 
clination. And if I were capable of giving 
you any little assistance in the noble design 
you are engaging in, by corresponding with 
you by letter, while you are at such a distance, 
I should do it most cheerfully. And, per- 
haps, such a motion may not be altogether un- 
acceptable : For I am inclinable to believe, 
that when some, whom you are obliged to con- 
verse with, observe your behaviour so different 
from what it formerly was, and banter you upon 
it as mad and fanciful, it may be some little 
relief to correspond with one who will take a 
pleasure in heartening and encouraging you. 
And when a great many things frequently offer, 
in which conscience may be concerned where 
duty may not always be plain, nor suitable per- 
sons to advise with at hand, it may be some 



56 eOL. GARDINER'S LIFEr 

satisfaction to you to correspond with one^ 
Willi »Ahom you may use a friendly freedom in 
all such matters, and on whose fidelity you 
may depend. You may therefore command 
me in any of these respects, and 1 shall take a 
pleasure in servinpj you. — One piece of advice 
1 shall venture to give you, though your own 
good sense will make my enlarging upon 
it less needful ; I mean, that you would, from 
your first settinp; out, carefully distinguish be- 
t^^ een the essentials of real religion, and those 
things which are commonly reckoned by its 
professors to belong to it. The want of this 
distinction has had very unhappy consequences 
from one age to another, and perhaps in none 
more than ihe present. But your daily con- 
verse with your Bible, which you mention, 
may herein give you great assistance. I move, 
also, that since infidelity so much abounds, 
you would, not only by close and serious con- 
sideia ion, endeavour to settle yourself well in 
the fundamental principles of religion, but also 
that, as opportunity offers, you would converse 
with those books which treat most judiciously 
on the divine original of Christianity, such as 
Grotms, Abadie, Baxter, Bates, Du Plessis, 
&c. which may establish you against the cavils 
that occur in almost all conversations, and 
furnish you with arguments, which, when 
properly offered, may be of use to make some 
impressions on others. But -being too much 
straitened to enlarge at present, I can only add, 
that if your hearty falling in with serious relig- 
ion should prove any hinderance to your ad- 



COL. GARDINER^S LIFE. 57 

vancement in the world, (which I pray God it 
may not, unless such advancement would be a 
real snare to you,) I hope you will trust our Sa- 
viour's word, that it shall be no disadvantage to 
you in the final issue : He has given you his 
word for it. Matt. xix. 29. upon which you 
may safely depend ; and I am satisfied, none 
that ever did so, at last repented of it. May 
you go on and prosper, and the God of all 
grace and peace be with you !" 

I think it very evident from the contents of 
this letter, that the major had not imparted to 
his mother the most singular circumstances at- 
tending his conversion : And, indeed, there 
was something so peculiar in them, that I do not 
wonder he was always cautious in speaking of 
them, and especially, that he was at first much 
on the reserve. We may also naturally reflect, 
that there seems to have been something very 
providential in this letter, considering the de- 
bate in which our illustrious convert was so soon 
engaged : for it was written but about three 
weeks before his conference with the Lady 
above mentioned, in the defence of Christiani- 
ty ; or, at least, before the appointment of it. 
And as some of the books recommended by 
Dr. Calamy, particularly Abadie and Dn Pies- 
sis, were undoubtedly within his reach, (if our 
English advocates were not,) this might, by 
the divine blessing, contribute considerably to- 
wards arming him for that combat, in which he 
came off with such happy success. And as in 
this instance, so in many others, they who will 
observe the coincidence and concurrence of 



58 COL. gardik^er's life. 

things, may be engaged to adore the wise can- 
duct of Pi evidence in events which, when ta- 
ken singly and by themselves, have nothing 
very remarkable in them. 

I think it was about this time that this reso- 
lute and exempkiry christian entered upon that 
xnet^^'^^Hc'il manner of living, which he pursu- 
ed through so many succeeding years of his hfe, 
and i DCiicve, gencrahy, so far as the broken 
state of his health would allow it in his latter 
days, to the very end of it. He used constant- 
ly to rise at four in the morning, and to spend 
his time till six, in the secret exercises of devo- 
tion, reading, meditation, and prayer ; in which 
last he contracted such a fervency of spirit, as 
I believe few men living ever obtained. This 
certainly tended very much to strengthen that 
firm faith in God, and reverend animating sense 
of his presence, for which he was so eminently 
remarkable, and which carried him through 
the trials and services of life, with such steadi- 
ness, and with such activity ; for he indeed en- 
dured, and acted as always seeing him who is 
invisible. If at any time he was obliged to go 
out before six in the morning, he arose propor- 
tionably sooner ; so that when a journey or a 
march has required him to be on horseback by 
four, he would be at his devotions at farthest by 
two. He likewise secured time for retirement 
in an evening ; and that he might have it the 
more at command, and be the more fit to use 
it properly, as well as the better able to rise ear- 
ly the next morning, he generally went to bed 
about ten : And, during the time I was ac- 



COL. GARDINER'S LIFE, 59 

qiiainted with him, he seldom ate any supper, 
but a mouthful of bread with one glass of wine. 
In cousequence of this, as well as of his admi- 
rably good constitution, and the long habit he 
had formed, he required less sleep than most 
persons I have known : And I doubt not but 
his uncommon progress in piety was in a great 
measure owing to these resolute habits of self- 
denial. 

A life any thing like this, could not, to be 
sure, be entered upon, in the midst of such 
company as he had been accustomed to keep, 
without great opposition ; especially as he did 
not entirely withdraw himself from cheerful 
conversation ; but, on the contrary, gave sev- 
eral hours every day to it, lest religion should 
be reproached, as having made him morose. 
He, however, early began a practice, which to the 
last day of his life he retained, of reproving vice 
and profaneness ; and was never afraid to de- 
bate the matter with any, under the conscious- 
ness of such superiority in the goodness of his 
cause. 

A remarkable instance of this, happened, if I 
mistake not, about the middle of the year 1720, 
thousrh I cannot be \erv exact as to the date of 
the story. It was, however, on his first return 
to make any considerable abode in England af- 
ter this remarkable change. He had heard, on 
the other side of the water, that it was currently 
reported among his companions at home, that 
he w^as stark mad ; a report at which no reader, 
who knows the wisdom of the world in these 
matters, will be much surprised any more than 



60 COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 

himself. He concluded, therefore, that he 
should have many battles to fight, and was wil- 
ling to dispatch the business as fast as he could. 
And therefore, being to spend a few days at 
the country house of a person of distinguished 
rank, v\ ith whom he had been very intimate, 
(whose name I do not remember that he told 
me, nor did I think it proper to inquire after it,) 
he begged the favour of him, that he w^ould con- 
trive matters so, that a day or two after he came 
down, several of their former gay companions 
might meet at his lordship's table, tiia^ he 
might have an opportunity of making hk a- 
pology to them, and acquainting them with ,he 
nature and reasons of his change. It was ic- 
coidingly agreed to ; and a pretty large com- 
pany met on the day appointed, with previous 
notice that nii^jor Gardiner w-ould be there. 
A good deal of raillery passed at dinner, to 
which the major made very little answer. But 
when the cloth w^s taken away, and the ser- 
vants retired, he begged their patience for a 
few minutes, and then plainly and seriously 
told them, what notions he entertained of virtue 
and religion, and on what considerations he had 
absolutely determined, that by the grace of 
God he would make it the care and business of 
life, whatever he might lose by it, and whatev- 
er censure and contempt he might incur. He 
well knew how improper it was in such compa- 
ny to relate the extraordinary manner in 
M hich he was awakened ; which they would 
probably have interpreted as a demonstration of 
lunacy, against all the gravity and solidity of 



CfOL. eARDINER'S LIFE. 61 

his discourse : but he contented himself with 
such a rational defence of a righteous, sober, 
and godly life, as he knew none of them could 
with any shadow of reason contest. He then 
challenged them to propose any thing they 
could urge, to prove that a life of irreligion and 
debauchery was preferable to the fear, love, 
and w orship of the eternal God, and a conduct 
agreeable to the precepts of his gospel. And 
he failed not to bear this tes imony from his own 
experience, (to one part of which many of them 
had been witnesses,) that after having run the 
widest round of sensual pleasure, with all the 
advantages the best constitution and^pirits could 
give him, he had never tasted any thing that 
deserved to be called happiness, till he had 
made religion his refuge and his delight. He 
testified calmly and boldly the habitual sereni- 
ty aiid peace that he now felt in his ow n breast, 
(for the most elevated delights he did not think fit 
to plead, lest they should be esteemed enthusi- 
asm,) and the composure and pleasure with 
which he looked forward to objects, which the 
gayest sinner must acknowledge to be equally 
unavoidable and dreadful. 

I know not what might be attempted by some 
of the corrpany in answer to this ; but I well 
remember he told me, the master of the table, 
a person of a very frank and candid disposition, 
cut short the debate, and said, " Come, let us 
call another cause : We thought this man 
mad, and he is in good earnest proving that we 
are so.'' On the whole, this well judged circ um- 



62 COL# GARDINER'S LIFE. 

Stance saved him a great deal of future trouble. 
When his former acquaintance observed, that 
he was still conversable and innocently cheer- 
ful, and that he was immoveable in his resolu- 
tions, they desisted from farther importunity. 
And he has assured me, that instead of losing 
any one valuable friend by this change in his 
character, he found himself much more esteem- 
ed and regarded by many who could not per- 
suade themselves to imitate his example. ^ 

I have not any memoirs of Colonel Gardiner's 
life, or of any other remarkable event befalling 
him in it, from the time of his return to Eng- 
land, till his marriage in the year 1726, except 
the extracts which have been sent me from 
some letters, which he wrote to his religious 
friends during this interval, and which I cannot 
pass by Mdthout a more particular notice. It 
mav be recollected, that in consequence of the 
reduction of that regiment, of which he was 
major, he was out of commission from Nov. 
10th, 1718, till June 1st, 1724 : And after he 
returned from Paris, I find all his letters during 
this period dated from London, where he con- 
tinued in communion with the christian society 
under the pastoral care of Doctor Calamy. As 
his good mother also belonged to the same, it 
is easy to imagine, it must be an unspeakable 
pleasure to her to have such frequent opportu- 
nities of conversing with such a son, of observ- 
ing in his daily conduct and discourses the 
blessed effects of that change which divine 
grace had made in his heart, and of sitting 
down with him monthly at that sacred feast, 



COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 63 

where christians so frequently enjoy the di- 
vinest entertainments which they expect on 
this side heaven. I the rather mention this or- 
dinance, because, as this excellent lady had a 
very high esteem for it, so she had an opportu- 
nity of attending it but the very Lord's day im- 
mediately preceding her death, which happened 
on Thursday, Oct. 7, 1725, after her son had 
been removed from her almost a year. He had 
maintained her handsomely out of that very 
moderate income on which he subsisted since 
his regiment had been disbanded ; and when 
she expressed her gratitude to him for it, he 
assured her, (I think, in one of the last letters 
she ever received from him,) " that he esteem- 
ed it a great honour, that God put it into his 
power to make" what he called '^ a very small 
acknowledgment of all her care for him, and 
especially of the many prayers she had offered 
on his account, which had already been remark- 
ably answered, and the benefit of which he hop- 
ed ever to enjoy.'' 

I apprehend that the Earl of Stair's regiment, 
to the majority of which he was promoted on 
the 20th of July, 1724, was then quartered in 
Scotland ; for all the letters in my hand, from 
that time to the 6th of February, 1726, are dat- 
ed from thence, and particularly from Douglas, 
Stranrawen, Hamilton, and Ayr; but I have the 
pleasure to find, from comparing these with 
others of an earlier date from London and the 
neighbouring parts, that neither the detriment 
which he must suffer by being so long out of 
commission, nor the hurry of affairs while 



6# COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 

charged with it, could prevent or interrupt that 
intercourse with Heaven, which was his daily- 
feast, and his daily strength. 

These were most eminently the happy years 
of his life ; for he had learned to estimate his 
happiness, not by the increase of honour, or the 
possession of wealth, or by what was much 
dearer to his generous heart than either, the con- 
verse of the nearest and worthiest human friends, 
but by nearness to God, an d by opportunities 
of humble coiverse with him, in the lively ex- 
ercise of contemplation, praise, and prayer. 
Now, there was no period of his life in which 
he was more eminently favoured with these ; 
nor do I find any of his letters so overflowing 
with transports of holy joy, as those which 
were dated during this time. There are indeed 
in some of them such very sublime passages, 
that I have been dubious whether I should com- 
municate them to the public or not, lest I should 
administer matter of profane ridicule to some, 
who look upon all the elevations of devotion as 
contemptible enthusiasm. And it has also giv- 
en me some apprehensions, lest it should dis- 
courage some pious christians, who after hav- 
ing spent several years in the service of God, 
and in humble obedience to the precepts of his 
gospel, may not have attained to any such 
heights as these. But, on the whole, I cannot 
satisfy myself to suppress them, not only as I 
number some of them, considered in a devo- 
tional view, among the most extraordinary 
pieces of the kind I have ever met with ; but 



COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 65 

as some of the most excellent and judicious 
persons I any where know, to whom I have 
read them, have assured me, that they felt their 
hearts in an unusual manner impressed, quick- 
ened, and edified by them. 

I will therefore draw back the veil, and 
shew my much honoured friend in his most se- 
cret recesses, that the world may see what those 
springs were from whence issued that clear, 
permanent, and living stream of wisdom, piety, 
and virtue, which so apparently ran through all 
that part of his life which was open to public 
observation. It is not to be imagined, that let- 
ters written in the intimacy of christian friend- 
ship, some of them with the most apparent 
marks of haste, and amidst a variety of import* 
ant public cares, should be adorned with any 
studied elegance of expression, about which 
the greatness of his soul would not allow him 
to be at any time very solicitous ; for he gen- 
erally, (so far as I could observe) wrote as fast 
as his pen could move, which, happily both for 
him and his many friends, was very freely. 
Yet here the grandeur of his subject has some- 
times clothed his ideas with a language more 
elevated, than is ordinarily^ to be expected in 
an epistolary correspondence. The proud 
scorners, who may deride sentiments and en- 
joyments like those which this truly great maa 
so experimentally and pathetically describes, I 
pity from my heart ; and grieve to think how 
unfit they must be for the hallelujahs of heaven, 
who pour contempt upon the nearest approach- 
F 2 



66 COLt GARDINER'S LII?E. 

es to them ; nor shall I think it any misfor^ 
tune to share with so excellent a person in their 
profane derision. It will be infinitely more 
than an equivalent for all, that such ignorance 
and petulancy can think and say, if I may con- 
vince some who are as yet strangers to religion, 
how real, and how noble its delights are ; if I 
n ay engage my pious readers to glorify God 
for so illustrious an instance of his grace ; and 
finally, if I may quicken them, and above all 
may rouse my own too indulgent spirit to fol- 
low with less unequal steps an example, to the 
sublimity of which I fear few of us shall after 
all be able fully to attain. And that we may 
not be too much discouraged under the defi- 
ciency, let it be recollected, that few have the 
advantage of a temper naturally so warm : few 
have an equal command of retirement ; and 
perhaps hardly any one, who thinks himself 
most indebted to the riches and freedom of di- 
vine grace, can trace interpositions of it in all 
respects equally astonishing. 

The first of these extraordinary letters which 
have fallen into my hand is dated near three 
years after his conversion, and addressed to a 
lady of quality. I believe it is the first the 
Mai or ever wrote so immediately on the sub*- 
ject of his religious consolations and converse 
with God in devout retirement. For I well 
remember, that he once told me, he was so 
much afraid that something of spiritual pride 
should mingle itself with the relation of such 
kind of experiences, that he concealed them a 
long time : But observing with how much 



SOL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 67 

freedom the sacred writers open all the most 
secret recesses of their hearts, especially in the 
Psalms, his conscience began to be burthened, 
under an apprehension, that, for the honour of 
God, and in order to engage the concurrent 
praises of some of his people, he ought to dis- 
close them. On this he set himself to reflect, 
who among all his numerous acquaintance 
seemed at once the most experienced christian 
he knew, (to whom therefore such thmgs as he 
had to communicate might appear solid and 
credible,) and who the humblest. He quickly- 
thought of the Lady Marchioness of Douglas 
in this view ; and the reader may well imag- 
ine, that it struck my mind very strongly, to 
think that now, more than 24 years after it was 
written, Providence should bring to my hands, 
(as it has done within these few days), what I 
assuredly believe to be a genuine copy of that 
very letter, which I had not the least reason to 
expect I should ever have seen, when I learned 
from his own mouth, amidst the freedom of an 
accidental conversation, the occasion and cir- 
cumstances of it. 

It is dated from London, July 21, 1722 ; 
and the very first lines of it relate to a remark- 
able circumstance, which, from others of his 
letters, I find has happened several times. I 
mean, that when he had received from any of 
his christian friends a few lines which particu- 
larly affected his heart, he could not stay till 
the stated return of his devotional hour, but 
immediately retired to pray for them, and to 
give vent to those religious emotions of mind 



68 COL. GARDINER'S LIFE* 

which such a correspondence raised. How 
invaluable was such a friend ! and how great 
reason have those of us who once possessed a 
large share in his heart, and in those retired 
and sacred moments, to bless God for so sin- 
gular a felicity ; and to comfori ourselves in a 
pleasing hope, that we may yet reap future 
blessings, as the harvest of those petitions 
which he can no more repeat. 

His words are these : "1 was so happy as to 
receive yours just as I arrived ; and I had no 
sooner read it, but I shut my door, and sought 
him whom my soul loveth. I sought him, and 
found him ; and would not let him go till he 
had blessed us all. It is impossible to find 
words to express what I obtained ; but I sup- 
pose it was something like that which the disci- 
ples got, as they were going to Emmaus, when 
they said, Did not our hearts burn within us ? 
&c. or rather like what Paul felt, when he 
could not tell whether he was in the body or 
out of it.'' He then mentions his dread of 
spiritual pride, from which he earnestly prays 
that God may deliver and preserve him. 
'' This," says he, " would have hindered me 
from communicating these things, if I had not 
such an example before me as the man after 
God's own heart, saying, I will declare what 
God hath done for my soul ; and elsewhere, 
the humble shall hear thereof, and be glad : 
Now I am well satisfied that your ladyship is 
of that number." He then adds, '' I had no 
sooner finished this exercise," that is, of 
prayer above mentioned, *' but 1 sat down to 



€0L. GARDINER'S LIFE. 69 

admire the goodness of my God, that he would 
vouchsafe to influence, by his free Spirit, so 
undeserving a wretch as I, and to make me 
thus to mount up with eagles' wings. And here 
I was lost again, and got into an ocean, where 
I could find neither bound nor bottom ; but 
was obliged to cry out with the apostle, " O 
the breadth, the length, the depth, the heighth, 
of the love of Christ, which passeth knowl^ 
edge !'' But if 1 give way to this strain, I shall 
never have done. That the God of hope may 
fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that 
you may abound in hope through the power of 
the Holy Ghost, shall always be the prayer of 
him, who is, with the greatest sincerity and re- 
spect, your ladyship's, &c." 

Another passage to the same purpose I find 
in a memorandum, which he seems to have 
written for his own use, dated Monday, March 
11, which I perceive, from many concurrent 
circumstances, must have been in the year 
1722-3. " This day," says he, '' having been 
to visit Mrs. G. at Hampstead, I came home 
about two, and read a sermon on these words, 
Ps. cxxx. 4. But there is forgiveness with 
thee that thou may est be feared ; about the 
latter end of which there is a description of the 
miserable condition of those that are shghters 
of pardoning grace. From a sense of the 
great obligations I lay under to the Almighty 
God, who hath made me to differ from such, 
from what 1 was, and from the rest of my com- 
panions, I kneeled down to praise his holy 
name ; and I know not that in my life time I 



70 COL. Gardiner's life. 

ever lay lower in the dust, never having had a 
fuller view of my own unworthiness. I never 
pleaded more strongly the merits and interces- 
sion of him w^ho I know is worthy ; never vow- 
ed more sincerely to be the Lord's, and to ac- 
cept of Christ, as he is offered in the gospel, as 
my king, priest, and prophet ; never had so 
strong a desire to depart, that I might sin no 
more ; but — my grace is sufficient — curbed 
that desire. I never pleaded with greater fer- 
vency for the Comforter, which, our blessed 
Lord hath promised, shall abide with us forev- 
er. For all which I desire to ascribe glory, 
&c. to Him that sitteth on the throne, and to 
the Lamb.'' 

There are several others of his papers which 
speak much the same language ; which, had 
he kept a diary, would, I doubt not, have 
filled many sheets. I believe my devout read- 
ers would not soon be weary of reading ex- 
tracts of this kind. But that 1 may not exceed 
in this part of my narrative,* I shall mention 
only two more, each of them dated some years 
after ; that is, one from Douglas, April 1, 1725 ; 
and the other from Stranrawen, 25th of May 
following. 

The former of these relates to the frame of 
his spirit on a journey ; on the mention of which 
I cannot but recollect how often I have heard 
him say, that some of the most delightful days 
of his life were days in which he travelled alone, 
(that is, with only a servant at a distance ;) 
when he could, especially in roads not much 
frequented, indulge himself in the pleasures of 



COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 71 

prayer and praise ; in the exercise of which 
last he was greatly assisted by several psalms, 
and hymns, which he had treasured up in his 
memory, and which he used not only to repeat 
aloud, but sometimes to smg. In reference to 
this, I remember the follow passage, in a letter 
which he wrote to me many years after, when, 
on mentioning my ever dear and honoured 
friend, the Rev. Dr. Watts, he says, *'How of- 
ten, in singing some of his psalms, hymns, or 
lyrics, on horseback, and elsewhere, has the 
evil spirit been made to flee, 

When e'er my heart in tune was found. 
Like David's harp of solemn sound !'' 

Such was the first of April above mentioned, 
in the evening of which he w^rites thus to an in- 
timate friend : " What would I have given this 
day upon the road, for paper, pen, and ink, 
when the Spirit of the Most High rested upon 
me ! O for the pen of a ready writer, and the 
tongue of an angel, to declare what God hath 
done this day for my soul ! But, in short, it is 
in vain to attempt it ; All that I am able to say, 
is only this, that my soul has been for some 
hours joining Vvith the blessed spirits above, in 
giving giorj , and honour, and praise, unto Him 
that sittetli upon the throne, and to the Lamb, 
forever and ever. My praises began from a 
renewed view of him whom I savi^ pierced for 
my transgressions. I summoned the whole 
hierarchy of heaven to join with me ; and I am 
persuaded they all echoed back praise to the 
Most High. Yea, one would have thought, 



72 COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 

the very larks joined me with emulation. Sure 
then I need not make use of many words, to 
persuade you that are his saints, to join me in 
blessing and praising his holy name*'' He 
concludes, ^' May the blessing of the God of 
Jacob rest upon you all ! Adieu. Written in 
great haste, late, and weary." 

Scarce can I here refrain from breaking out 
into more copious reflections on the exquisite 
pleasures of true religion, when risen to such 
eminent degrees, which can thus feast the soul 
in its sohtude, and refresh it on journies ; and 
bring down so much of heaven to earth as this 
delightful letter expresses. But the remark is 
so obvious, that I will not enlarge upon it ; but 
proceed to the other letter above mentioned, 
which was written the next month, on the Tues« 
day after a sacrament day. 

He mentions the pleasure with which he had 
attended a preparation bcrmon the Saturday be- 
fore ; and then he adds, '' I took a walk upon 
the mountains that are over against Ireland ; and 
I persuade myself, that were I capable of giving 
you a description of what passed there, you 
would agree that I had much better reason to 
remember my God from the hills of Port Patrick, 
than David froai the land of Jordan, and of the 
Hermonites from the hill Mizar." I suppose 
he means in reference to the clearer discoveries 
of the gospel with which we are favoured. " In 
short,'' says he immediately afterwards, in that 
scripture phrase which vvas become so familiar 
to him, '^ I wrestled some hours with the Angel 
of the covenant, and made supplications to him 



CGL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 73 

with floods of tears and cries, — until I had al- 
most expired : But he strengthened me so, 
that Hke Jacob, I had power with God, and 
prevailed. This,'' adds he, " is but a very 
faint description : You will be more able to 
judge of it by what you have felt yourself upon 
the like occasions. After such preparatory 
work, I need not tell you how blessed the sol- 
emn ordinance of the Lord's supper proved to 
me ; I hope it was so to many. You may be- 
lieve, I should have been exceeding glad, if my 
gracious Lord had ordered it so, that I might 
have made you a visit, as I proposed : But I 
am now glad it was ordered otherwise, since he 
hath caused so much of his goodness to pass 
before me. Were I to give you an account of 
the many favours my God hath loaded me with, 
since I parted from you, I must have taken up 
many days in nothing but writing. I hope you 
will join with me in praises for all the goodness 
he has shewn to your unworthy brother in the 
Lord." 

Such were the ardours and elevations of his 
soul : But while I record these memorials of 
them, I am very sensible there are many who 
will be inclined to censure them, as the flights 
of enthusiasm ; for which reason I must beg 
leave to add a remark or two on the occasion, 
which will be illustrated by several other ex- 
tracts, which I shall introduce into the sequel 
of these memoirs. The one is, that he never 
pretends, in any of the passages cited above, or 
ebevvhere, to have received any immediate 

G 



74 COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 

revelations from God, which should raise him 
above the ordinary methods of instruction, or 
discover any thing to him, whether of doctrines 
or facts. No man was farther from pretending 
to predict future events, except it were from 
the moral prognostications of causes naturally 
tending to produce them ; in tracing of which 
he had indeed an admirable sagacity, as I have 
seen in some very remarkable instances. Neith- 
er was he at all inclinable to govern himself by 
secret impulses upon his mind, leading him to 
things for which he could assign no reason but 
the impulse itself. Had he ventured, in a pre- 
sumption on such secret agitations of mind, to 
teach or to do any thing not warranted by the 
dictates of sound sense, and the word of God, 
1 should readily have acknowledged him an en- 
thusiast, unless he could have produced some 
other evidence than his own persuasion to have 
supported the authority of them. But these 
ardent expressions, which some may call enthu- 
siasm, seem only to evidence a heart deeply 
affected with a sense of the divine presence and 
perfections, and of that love which passeth 
knowledge ; especially as manifested in our re- 
demption by the Son of God, which did indeed 
inflame his whole soul. And he thought he 
might reasonably ascribe the strong impres- 
sions, to which men are generally such strang- 
ers, and of which he had long been entirely 
destitute, to the agency or influence of the Spir- 
it of God upon his heart ; and that in propor- 
tion to the degree in which he felt them, he 
might properly say, God was present with him, 



COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 75 

and he conversed with God.^ Now, whea 
we consider die scriptural phrases of *' walking 
with God, of having communion with the 
Father and his Son Jesus Christ, of Christ's 
coming to them that open the door of their 
hearts to him, and supping with them, of God's 
shedding abroad his love in the heart by his 
Spirit, of his coming with Jesus Christ and 
making his abode with any man that loves him, 
of his meeting him that worketh righteousness, 
of his making us glad by the light of his coun- 
tenance," and a variety of other equivalent ex- 
pressions ; I believe we shall see reason to 
judge much more favourably of such expres- 
sions as those now in question, than persons 
who are themselves strangers to elevated devo- 
tion, and perhaps converse but little with their 
Bible, are inclined to do ; especially if they have, 
as many such persons have, a temper that in- 
clines them to cavil and find fault. And I must 



* The ingenious and pious Mr. Grove (who I think was as 
little suspected of running* into enthusiastical extremes as most 
divines I could name,) has a noble passage to this purpose in 
the sixth volume of his posthumous works, p. 40, 41. which re- 
spect to the memory of both these excellent persons, inclines 
me to insert here. " How often are good thoughts suggested,'* 
(viz. to the pure in heart,) " heavenly affections kindled and 
inflamed ! How often is the christian prompted to holy actions, 
drawn to his duty, restored, quickened, persuaded, in such a 
manner, that he would be unjust to the Spirit of God to ques- 
tion his agency in the whole ? Yes, Oh my soul, there is a Su- 
preme Being, who governs the world, and is present with it, 
who takes up his more special habitation in good men, and is 
nigh to all who call upon him, to sanctity and assist them \ 
Hast thou not felt him, O my soul, like another soul, actuating 
thy faculties, exalting thy views, purifying thy passions excit- 
ing thy graces, and begetting in thee an abhorrence of sin, and 
a love of holiness ? And is not all this an argument of his pres> 
ence, as truly as if thou didst see him ?" 



76 COL. G/iRDINER'S LIFE. 

farther observe, that amidst all those freedoms> 
with which this eminent christian opens his 
devout heart to the most intimate of his friends, 
he still speaks with profound awe and rever- 
ence of his heavenly Father, and his Saviour, and 
maintains (after the example of the sacred wri- 
ters themselves,) a kind of dignity in his ex- 
pressions, suitable to such a subject ; without 
any of that fond familiarity of language, and de- 
grading meanness of phrase, by which it is, es- 
pecially of late, grown fashionable among some 
(who nevertheless I believe mean well,) to ex- 
press their love and their humility. 

On the whole, if habitual love to God, firm 
feith in the Lord Jesus Christ, a steady depen- 
dence on the divine promises, a full persuasion 
of the wisdom and goodness of all the dispensa- 
tions of providence, a high esteem for the 
blessings of the heavenly world, and a sincere 
4:ontempt for the vanities of this, can properly 
be called enthusiasm ; then was Colonel Gar- 
diner indeed one of the greatest enthusiasts our 
age has produced ; and in proportion to the 
degree in which he was so, 1 must esteem him 
one of the wisest and happiest of mankind ; 
nor do I fear to tell the world, that it is the de- 
sign of my Vv^riting these memoirs, and of ev- 
ery thing else tliat I undertake in life, to 
spread this glorious and blessed enthusiasm ; 
which I know to be the anticipation of heaven, 
as well as the most certain way to it. 

But lest any should possibly imagine, that 
allowing the experiences which have been de- 
scribed above, to have been ever so solid and 



COL. GARDINER^S LIFE. 77 

important, yet there may be some appearance 
of boasting in so free a communication of 
them ; 1 must add to what I have hinted in 
reference to this above, that I find in many of 
the papers before me very genuine expressions 
of the deepest humiUty and self-abasement ; 
w^hich indeed sucii holy converse with God in 
prayer and praise does, above all things in the 
world, tend to inspire and promote. Thus, in 
one of his letters, he says, '' I am but as a 
beast before him,'' In another, he calls him- 
self "a miserable hell-deserving sinner:" 
And in another, he cries out, *' Oh, how good 
a master do I serve ! but alas, how ungrateful 
am I ! What can be so astonishing as the love 
of Christ to us, unless it be the coldness of our 
sinful hearts towards such a Saviour ?" With 
many other clauses of the like nature, w^hich I 
shall not set myself more particularly to trace 
through the variety of letters in which they 
occur. 

It is a farther instance of his unfeigned hu- 
mility, that when, (as his lady, with her usual 
propriety of language, expresses it, in one of 
her letters to me concerning him,) " these di- 
vine joys and consolations were not his daily 
allowance," he, with equal freedom, in the 
confidence of christian friendship, acknowl- 
edges and laments it. Thus, in the first letter 
I had the honour of receiving from him, dated 
from Leicester, July 9, 1739, when he had 
been mentioning the blessing with which it had 
pleased God to attend my last address to him^ 
G 2 



7^ €0L. GARDINER'S LIFE* 

and the influence it had upon his mind, lie 
adds, ** Much do I stand in need of every 
help, to awaken me out of that spiritual dead- 
ness, which seizes me so often. Once indeed 
it was quite otherwise with me, and that for 
many years : 

" Firm was my health, my day \Tas bright, 
And I presumed 'twould ne'er be night : 
Fondly I said within my heart, 
Pleasure and peace shall ne'er depart, 
But I forgot : Thine arm was strong, 
"Which made my mountain stand so long : 
Soon as thy face began to hide, 
My health was gone, my comforts died." 

'' And here," adds he, '^ lies my sin, and my 
folly.'' 

I mention this, that the whole matter may be 
seen just as it was, and that other christians 
may not be discouraged, if they feel some 
abatement of that fervour, and of those holy 
joys, which they may have experienced during 
some of the first months or years of their spir- 
itual life. But with relation to the Colonel, I 
have great reason to believe that these \\ hich he 
laments, as his days of spiritual deadness were 
not unanimated ; and, that quickly after the 
date of this letter, and especially nearer the 
close of his life, he had farther revivings, as 
the joyful anticipation of those better things in 
reserve, \Ahich were then nearl)^ approaching. 

And thus Mr. Spears, in the letter I men- 
tioned above, tells us he related the matter to 
him ; (for he studies as much as possible ta 



COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 79 

retain the ColonePs own words :) " How- 
ever,'' says he, *' after that happy period of 
sensible communion, though my joys and en- 
largements were not so overflowing and sensi- 
ble, yet I have had habitual real communion 
with God from that day to this ;'^ the latter end 
of the year 1743 ; " and I know myself, and all 
that know^ me see, that through the grace of 
God, to which I ascribe all, my conversation 
has been becoming the gospel ; and let me die, 
w^henever it shall please God, or wherever it 
shall bCj I am sure I shall go to the mansions 
of eternal glory, &c." And this is perfectly 
agreeable to the manner in which he used to 
speak to me on this head, w^hich we have talk- 
ed over frequently and largely. 

In this connection, I hope my reader will 
forgive my inserting a little story which I re- 
ceived from a very worthy minister in Scotland, 
and which I shall give in his own words : ''In 
this period," meaning that which followed the 
first seven years after his conversion, " when 
his complaint of comparative deadness and 
languor in religion began, he had a dream, 
which, though he had no turn at all for taking 
notice of dreams, yet made a very strong im- 
pression upon his mind. He imagined that he 
saw his blessed Redeemer on earth, and that 
he was following him through a large field, 
following him whom his soul loved, but much 
troubled, because he thought his blessed Lord 
did not speak to him ; till he came up to the gate 
of a burying place, when, turning about, he 
smiled upon him in such a manner as filled his 



80 COL. Gardiner's life. 

soul with the most ravishing joy ; and, on 
after reflection, animated his faith in beheving 
that whatever storms and darkness he might 
meet with in the way, at the hour of death his 
glorious Redeemer would lift up upon him the 
light of his life-giving countenance." My cor- 
respondent adds a circumstance, for which he 
makes some apology, as what may seem 
whimsical, and yet made some impression on 
himself ; *' that there was a remarkable resem- 
blance in the field in which this brave man met 
death, and that he had represented to him in 
the dream." I did not frilly understand this 
at first ; but a passage in that letter from Mr. 
Spears, which I have mentioned more than 
once, has cleared it. '' Now observe, Sir, 
this seems to be a literal description of the place 
where this christian hero ended his sorrows and 
conflicts, and from which he entered triumphant- 
ly into the joys of his Lord. For after he fell in 
battle, fighting gloriously for his king and the 
cause of his God, his wounded body, while 
life was yet remaining, was carried from the 
field of battle by the east side of his own en- 
closure, till he came to the church yard of 
Tranet, and was brought to the minister's 
house ; where he soon after breathed out his 
soul into the hands of his Lord, and was con- 
ducted to his presence, where there is fulness 
of joy, without any cloud of interruption, 
forever." 

1 well know, that in dreams there are diverse 
vanities, and readily acknowledge that nothing 
certain could be inferred from this : Yet it 



COL. GARDINER'S LIFE* 81 

seems at least to shew which way the imagina- 
tion was working even in sleep ; and I cannot 
think it unworthy of a wise and good maa 
sometimes to reflect with complacency on any 
images, which passing through his mind even 
in that state, may tend either to express or to 
quicken his love to the great Saviour. Those 
eminently pious divines of the church of 
England, bishop Bull and bishop Kenn, do 
both intimate it as their opinion, that it may 
be a part of the service of ministering angels 
to suggest devout dreams*^ And I know that 
the worthy person of whom I speak was v/eli 
acquainted with that midnight hymn of the 
latter of those excellent writers, which haa 
these lines : 

^' Lord, lest the tempter me surprise, 
Watch over thine own sacrifice ! 
AJi loose, all idle thoughts cast out ; 
And make my very dreams devout 1" 

Nor would it be difficult to produce other 
passages much to the same purpose,! if it 

* Bishop Bull has these remarkable words : " Although 
I am no doater on dreams, yet I verily believe that some 
dreams are monitory above the power of fancy, and impress- 
ed upon us by some superior influence. For of such dreams 
we have plain and undeniable instances in history, both 
sacred and profane, and in our own age and observation. 
Nor shall I so value the laughter of sceptics, and the scoffs 
of the Epicureans, as to be ashamed to profess that I myself 
have had some convincing experiments of such impressions. 
Bishop Bull's Ser. vol. II. p. 489, 490." 

I If I mistake not, the same bishop Kenn is the author of 
a midnight hymn, concluding with these words : 

•' May my etherial Guardian kindly spread 
His wings, and from the tempter screen my head ^ 
Grant of celestial light some piercing beams. 
To bless my sleep, and sanctify my dreams !" 



8^ COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 

would not be deemed too great a digression 
from our subject, and too laboured a vindica- 
tion of a little incident, of very small impor- 
tance, when compared with most of those 
which make up this narrative. 

I meet not with any other remarkable event 
relating to Major Gardiner, which can properly 
be introduced here, till the year 1726, when, on 
the 1 1th of July, he w as married to the Right 
Honourable the Lady Frances Erskine, daugh- 
ter to the late Earl of Buchan, by w horn he had 
thirteen children, five only of which survived 
their father, two sons and three daughters; 
v^ horn I cannot mention without the most fer. 
vent prayers to God for them, that they may al- 
ways behave worthy the honour of being de- 
scended from such parents ; and that the God 
of their father, and of their mother, may make 
them perpetually the care of his providence, 
and yet more eminently happy in the constant 
and abundant influences of his grace ! 

As her Ladyship is still living, (and for the 
sake of her dear offspring and numerous friends, 
may she long be spared,) I shall not here in- 
dulge myself in saying any thing of her ; ex- 
cept it be, that the Colonel assured me, when 
he had been happy in this intimate relation to her 
more than fourteen years, that the greatest im- 

As he certainly was of those exactly parallel lines : 
" O may my Guardian, while I sleep. 
Close to my bed his vigils keep ; 
His hne angelical instil, 
Stop all the avenues of ill ! 
May he celestial joys rehearse. 
And thought to thought with me converse !'* 



COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 83 

perfection he knew in her character was, ^' that 
she vakied and loved him much more than he 
deserved." And little did he think, in the 
simplicity of heart with which he spoke this, 
how high an encomium he was making upon 
her, and how lasting an honour such a testimo- 
ny must leave upon her name, as long as the 
memory of it shall continue. 

As I do not intend in these memoirs a labour- 
ed essay on the character of Colonel Gardiner, 
digested under the various virtues and graces 
which Christianity requires, (which would, I 
think, be a little too formal for a w^ork of this 
kind, and would give it such an air of pane- 
gyric, as would neither suit my design, nor 
be at all likely to render it more useful ;) I 
shall now mention what I have either observed 
in him, or heard concerning him, with regard 
to those domestic relations, which commenced 
about this time, or quickly after. And here 
my reader vi^ill easily conclude, that the resolu- 
tion of Joshua, was from the first adopted and 
declared, ^' As for me and my house, we will 
serve the Lord.'' It v/ill naturally be suppos- 
ed, that as soon as he had a house, he erected 
an altar in it ; that the word of God was read 
there, and prayers and praises were constantly 
offered. These were not to be omitted, on ac- 
count of any guest ; for he esteemed it a part 
of due respect to those that remained under his 
roof, to take it for granted they would look up- 
on it as a very bad compliment, to imagine they 
would have been obliged, by neglecting the du- 
ties of religion on their account. As his fami- 



84 COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 

ly increased, he had a minister statedly resident 
in his house, who both discharged the office of 
a tutor to his children and of a chaplain, and 
who was always treated with a becoming kind- 
ness and respect. But in his absence, the Col- 
onel himself led the devotions of the family ; 
and they were happy who had an opportunity of 
knowing with how much solemnity, fervour and 
propriety he did it. 

He was constant in attendance upon public 
worship, in which an exemplary care was taken, 
that the children and servants might accompa- 
ny the heads of the family. And how he 
would have resented the non-attendance of any 
member of it, may easily be conjectured, 
from a free, but lively passage in a letter to one 
of his intimate friends, on an occasion which it 
is not material to mention : " Oh, Sir, had a 
child of yours under my roof but once neg- 
lected the public worship of God, when he w^as 
able to attend it, 1 should have been readv to 
conclude he had been distracted, and should 
have thought of shaving his head, and confining 
him in a dark room.'' 

He always treated his lady wdth manly ten- 
demess, giving her the most natural evidences 
of a cordial habitual esteem, and expressing a 
most affectionate sympathy wilh her, under 
the infirmities of a very delicate constitution, 
much broken, at least towards the latter 
years of their marriage, in consequence of so 
frequent pregnancy. He had at all times a 
most faithful care of all her interests, and es- 
pecially those relating to the state of religion 



COL, GARDINER'S LIFE. 85 

ill her mind. His conversation and his letters 
concurred to cherish those subUme ideas which 
Christianity suggests : to promote our submis- 
sion to the will of God, to teach us to centre 
our happiness in the great Author of our being, 
and to live by faith in the invisible world. 
These, no doubt, were frequently the subjects 
of mutual discourse ; and many letters, which 
her ladyship has had the goodness to communi- 
cate to me, are most convincing evidences of 
the degree in which this noble and most friend- 
ly care filled his mind in the days of their sepa- 
ration ; days, which so entire a mutual affec- 
tion must have rendered exceeding painful, 
had they not been supported by such exalted 
sentiments of piety, and sweetened by daily 
communion with an ever-present and ever-gra- 
cious God. 

The necessity of being so many months to- 
gether distant from his family, hindered him 
from many of those condescending labours in 
cultivating the minds of his children in early 
life, which to a soul so benevolent, so wise, and 
so zealous, would undoubtedly have afforded a 
very exquisite pleasure. The care of his 
worthy consort, who well knew that it is one 
of the brightest parts of a mother's character, 
and one of the most important views in which 
che sex can be considered, made him the easier 
under such a circumstance ; but when he was 
with them he failed not to instruct and admon- 
ish them ; and the constant deep sense with 
which he spoke of divine things, and the real 



86 COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 

unafFected indifference which he always shewed 
for what this vain world is most ready to ad- 
-mire, were excellent lessons of daily wisdom, 
which I hope they will recollect with advantage 
in every future scene of life. And I have seen 
such hints in his letters relating to them, as plain- 
ly shew with how great a weight they lay on his 
mind, and how highly he desired above all 
things that they might be the faithful disciples 
of Christ, and acquainted betimes with the un- 
equalled pleasures and blessings of religion. 
He thought an excess of delicacy and of indul- 
gence one of the most dangerous faults in edu* 
cation, by which he every where saw great 
numbers of young people undone : yet he 
was solicitous to guard against a severity, 
which might terrify or discourage ; and, though 
he endeavoured to take all prudent precautions 
to prevent the commission of faults, yet, when 
they had been committed, and there seemed to 
be a sense of them, he was always ready to 
make the most candid allowances for the 
thoughtlessness of unripened years, and tender- 
ly to cherish every purpose of a more proper 
conduct for the time to come. 

It was eas}^ to perceive tha t the openings of 
genius in the young branches of his family 
gave him great delight, and that he had a 
secret ambition to see them excel in what they 
undertook. Yet he was greatly cautious over 
his heart, lest it should be too fondly attached 
to them ; and as he was one of the most emi- 
nent proficients I ever knew in the blessed 
science of resignation to the divine will, so 



COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 87 

there was no effect of that resignation which 
appeared to me more admirable than what re- 
lated to the life of his children. An experi- 
ence, which no length of time will ever efface 
out of my memory, has so sensibly taught me, 
how difficult it is fully to support the christian 
character here, that I hope my reader will 
pardon me, (I am sure at least the heart of 
wounded parents will,) if I dwell a little long- 
er upon so interesting a subject. 

When he was in Herefordshire, in the 
month of July, in the year 1734, it pleased 
God to visit his little family with the small- 
pox. Five days before the date of the letter I 
am just going to mention, he had received the 
agreeable news, that there was a prospect of 
the recovery of his son, then under that awful 
visitation ; and he had been expressing his 
thankfulness for it, in a letter which he had 
sent away but a few hours before he was in- 
formed of his death ; the surprise of which, 
in this connexion, must naturally be very 
great. But behold (says the reverend and 
worthy person from whom I received the 
copy) his truly filial submission to the will of 
his heavenly Father, in the following lines, ad- 
dressed to the dear partner of his affliction : 
*^ Your resignation to the will of God under 
this dispensation gives me more joy than the 
death of the child has given me sorrow* He, 
to be sure, is happy ; and we shall go to him, 
though he shall not return to us. Oh that we 
had our latter end always in view ! — We shall 
soon follow ; and oh, what reason have we to 



88 GOL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 

long for that glorious day, when we shall get 
quit of this body of sin and death, under 
which we now groan, and which renders this 
life so wretched ! I desire to bless God, that 
■ [another of his children] is in so good a 

way : But I have resigned her. We must 
not choose for ourselves, and it is well we 
must not, for we should often make a very bad 
choice. And therefore it is our wisdom, as 
well as our duty, to leave all Avith a gracious 
God, who hath promised that all things shall 
work together for good to those that love him : 
And he is faithful that hath promised, who 
will infallibly perform it, if our unbelief does 
not stand in the way.'' 

The greatest trial of this kind that he ever 
bore, was in the removal of his second son, 
who was one of the most amiable and promis- 
ing children that has been known. The dear 
little creature was the darling of all who knew 
him ; and promised very fair, so far as a child 
could be known by its doings, to have been a 
great ornament to the family, and a blessing to 
the public. The suddenness of the stroke must, 
no doubt, render it the more painful ; for this 
beloved child was snatched away by an illness 
which seized him but about fifteen hours before 
it carried him off. He died in the month of 
October, 1733, at near six years old. Their 
friends were ready to fear that his affectionate 
parents would be almost overwhelmed with 
such a loss : But the happy father had so firm 
a persuasion, that God had received the dear 
little one to the felicities of the celestial world. 



^OL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 89 

and, at the same time, had so strong a sense of 
the divine goodness, in taking one of his chil- 
dren, and that too one who lay so near his heart, 
so early to himself, that the sorrows of nature 
were quite swallowed up in the sublime joys 
which these considerations administered. 
When he reflected what human life is ; how 
many its snares and temptations are ; and 
how frequently children, who once promised 
well, are insensibly corrupted, and at length 
undone ; with Solomon, he blessed the dead 
already dead, more than the living who were 
yet alive, and felt an unspeakable pleasure in 
looking after the lovely infant, as safely and de- 
lightfully lodged in the house of its heavenly 
Father. Yea, he assured me, that his heart 
was at this time so entirely taken up with these 
views, that he was afraid, they who did not 
thoroughly know him might suspect that he 
was deficient in the natural affections of a par- 
ent ; while thus borne above the anguish of 
them, by the views which faith administered to 
him, and which divine grace supported in his 
soul. 

So much did he, on one of the most trying 
occasions of life, manifest of the temper of a 
glorified saint ; and to such happy purposes 
did he retain those lessons of submission to 
God,andacquiescencein him, which I remember 
he once inculcated in a letter he wrote to a lady 
of quality, under the apprehension of a breach 
in her family, with which providence seemed 
to threaten her ; which I am willing to insert 
H 2 



90 COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 

here, though a little out of what might seem its 
most proper place, rather than entirely omit it. 
•It is dated from London, June 16, 1722, when, 
speaking of the dangerous illness of a dear re- 
lative, he has these M^ords : ^' When my mind 
runs hither," that is, to God, as its refug:e and 
strong defence, (as the connection plainly de- 
termines it,) " I think I can bear any thing, the 
loss of all, the loss of health or relations, on 
whom I depend, and whom I love, all that is 
dear to me, without repining or murmuring. 
When I think that God orders, disposes, and 
manages all things according to the council of 
his own will ; when I think of the extent of his 
providence, that it reaches to the minutest 
things ; then, though a useful friend or dear 
relative be snatched away by death, I recal my- 
self, and check my thoughts with these consid- 
erations : Is he not God, from everlasting and 
to everlasting ! And has he not promised to be 
a God to me ? A God in all his attributes ; a 
God in all his persons ; a God in all his crea- 
tures, and providences ? And shall I dare to 
say, What shall I do ? Was not he the infinite 
cause of all I met with in the creatures ? and 
were not they the finite effects of his infinite 
love and kindness ? I have daily experienced, 
that the instrument was and is what God makes 
it to be ; and I know, that this God hath the 
hearts of all men in his hands, and the earth is 
the Lord's, and the fulness thereof. If this 
earth be good for me, I shall have it ; for my 
Father hath it all in possession. If favour in 
the eyes of men be good for me^ I shall have it^ 



tOL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 91 

for the spring of every motion in the heart of 

man is in God's hand. My dear seems 

now to be dying ; but God is all-wise ; and 
every thing is done by him for the best. Shall 
I hold back any thing that is his own, when he 
requires it ? No ; God forbid ! When I con» 
sider the excellency of his glorious attributes, 
I am satisfied with all his dealings." I per- 
ceive, by the introduction, and by what follows, 
that most, if not all of this, is a quotation from 
something written by a lady ; but whether 
from some manuscript or printed book, wheth- 
er exactly transcribed, or quoted from memory, 
I cannot determine : And therefore I thought 
proper to insert it, as the Major (for that was 
the office he bore then J by thus interweaving 
it with his letter, makes it his own ; and as it 
seems to express, in a very lively manner, the 
principles which bore him on to a conduct so 
truly great and heroic, in circumstances that 
have overwhelmed many an heart, that could 
have faced danger and death with the greatest 
intrepidity. 

I return now to consider his character in the 
domestic relation of a master, on which I shall 
not enlarge. It is, however, proper to remark, 
that as his habitual meekness and command of 
his passions prevented indecent sallies of un- 
governable anger towards those in the lowest 
state of subjection to him, (by which some in 
high life do strangely debase themselves, and 
lose much of their authority,) so the natural 
greatness of his mind made him solicitous to 
render their inferior stations as easy as he 



92 COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 

could ; and so much the rather, because he 
considered all the children of Adam as stand- 
ing upon a level before their great Creator, 
and had also a deeper sense of the dignity and 
worth of every immortal soul, how meanly so- 
ever it might chance to be lodged, than most 
persons I have known. This engaged him to 
give his servants frequent religious exhortations 
and instructions, as I have been assured by 
several who were so happy as to live with him 
under that character. One of the first letters 
after he entered on his christian course ex- 
presses the same disposition ; in which, with 
great tenderness, he recommends a servant, 
who was in a bad state of health, to his moth- 
er's care, as he was well acquainted with her 
condescending temper ; mentioning, at the 
same time, the endeavours he had used to 
promote his preparations for a better world, 
under an apprehension that he would not con- 
tinue long in this. And we shall have an af- 
fecting instance of the prevalency of the 
same disposition in the closing scene of his 
life, and indeed in the last words he ever 
spoke, which expressed his generous solici- 
tude for the safety of a faithful servant who 
was then near him. 

As it was a few years after his marriage that 
he was promoted to the rank of lieutenant- 
colonel, in which he continued till he had a 
regiment of his own, I shall for the future 
speak of him by that tide ; and may not per- 
haps find any more proper place in which to 
mention what it is proper for me to say of his 



COL. GARDINER^S LIFE. 93 

behaviour and conduct as an officer. I shall 
not here enlarge on his bravery in the field, 
though that was very remarkable, as I have 
heard from others ; I say from others, for I 
never heard any thing of that kind from him- 
self ; nor knew, till after his death, that he was 
present at almost every battle that was fought 
in Flanders, while the illustrious duke of 
Marlborough commanded the allied army 
there. I have also been assured from several 
very credible persons, some of whom were 
eye-witnesses, that at the skirmish with the 
rebels at Preston in Lancashire, (thirty years 
before that engagement at the other Preston, 
which deprived us of this gallant guardian of 
his country,) he signalized himself very par- 
ticularly ; for he headed a little body of men, 
I think about twelve, and set fire to the barri- 
cado of the rebels, in the face of their whole 
army, while they were pouring in their shot, 
by which eight of the twelve that attended 
him fell. This was the last action of the kind 
in which he was engaged, before the long 
peace which ensued : And who can express 
how happy it was for him, and indeed for his 
country, of which he was ever so generous, 
and in his latter years so important a friend, 
that he did not fall then ; when the ^profane- 
ness which mingled itself With this martial 
rage seemed to rend the heavens, and shocked 
some other military gentlemen, who were not 
themselves remarkable for their caution in this 
respect. 



94 COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 

But I insist not on things of this nature, 
wliich the true greatness of his soul would 
hardly ever permit him to mention, unless 
when it tended to illustrate the divine care 
over him in these extremities of danger, and 
the grace of God, in calling him from so 
abandoned a state. It is well known, that the 
character of an officer is not only to be approv- 
ed in the day of combat. Colonel Gardiner 
was truly sensible, that every day brought its 
duties along with it ; and he was constantly 
careful, that no pretence of amusement, friend- 
ship, or even devotion itself, might prevent 
their being discharged in their season. 

I doubt not but the noble persons in whose 
regiment he was Lieutenant-Colonel will always 
be ready to bear an honourable and grateful 
testimony to his exemplary diligence and 
fidelity in all that related to the care of the 
troops over which he was set, whether with 
regard to the men or the horses. He knew, 
that it is incumbent on those who have the 
honour of presiding over others, whether in 
civil, ecclesiastical, or military offices, not to 
content themselves with doing only so much 
as may preserve them from the reproach of 
gross and visible neglect ; but seriously to 
consider, how much they can possibly do, 
witho ut going out of their proper sphere, to 
serve the public, by the due inspection of 
those committed to their care. The duties 
of the closet and of the sanctuary were so 
adjusted, as not to interfere with those of the 
parade, or any other place where the welfare of 



COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 95 

the regiment called him. On the other hand, 
he was solicitous not to suffer these things to 
interfere with religion ; a due attendance to 
which he apprehended to be the surest meth- 
od of attaining all desirable success in e very- 
other interest and concern in life. He there- 
fore abhorred every thing that should look like 
a contrivance to keep his soldiers employed 
about their horses and their arms at the sea- 
sons of public worship ; (an indecency which 
I wish there were no room to mention : ) Far 
from that, he used to have them drawn up 
just before it began ; and from the parade 
they went off to the house of God. He un- 
derstood the rights of conscience too well to 
impose his own particular profession in relig- 
ion on others, or to use those who differed 
from him in the choice of its modes the less 
kindly or respectfully on that account. But 
as most of his own company, and many of the 
rest, chose (when in England) to attend him 
to the dissenting chapel, he used to march 
them thither in due time, so as to be there 
before the worship began. And I must do 
them the justice to say, that, so far as I could 
ever discern, when I have seen them in large 
numbers before me, they have behaved with 
as much reverence, gravity, and decorum, 
during the time of divine service, as any of 
their fellow worshippers. 

That his remarkable care to maintain good 
discipline among them, (of which we shall af- 
terwards speak) might be the more effectual, he 
made himself on all proper occasions accessi- 



96 COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 

ble to them, and expressed a great concern for 
their interests, which being so genuine and sin- 
cere, naturally discovered itself in a variety of 
instances. I remember I had once occasion to 
visit one of his dragoons in his last illness at 
Harborough, and 1 found the man upon the 
borders of eternity ; a circumstance, which, as 
he apprehended it himself, must add some pe- 
culiar weight and credibility to his discourse. 
And he then told me, in his Colonel's ab- 
sence, that he questioned not but he should 
have everlasting reason to bless God on Colonel 
Gardiner's account ; for he had been a father 
to him in all his interests, both temporal and 
spiritual. He added, that he had visited him 
almost every day during his illness, with relig- 
ious advice and instruction, as well as taken 
care that he should want nothing that might 
conduce to the recovery of his health. And 
he did not speak of this as the result of any 
particular attachment to him, but as the man- 
ner in which he was accustomed to treat those 
under his command. It is no wonder that 
this engaged their affection to a very great de- 
gree. And I doubt not, that if he had fought 
the fatal battle of Prestonpans at the head of 
that gallant regiment, of which he had the 
care for so many years, and which is allowed 
by most unexceptionable judges to be one of 
the finest in the British service, and consequent- 
ly, in the world, he had been supported in a 
much different manner, and had found a much 
greater number who \\ ould have rejoiced in an 



COL. GARDINER^S LIFE. 97 

opportunity of making their own breasts a bar- 
rier ill the defence of his. 

It could not but greatly endear him to his 
soldiers, that so far as preferments lay in his 
power, or were under his influence, they were 
distributed according to merit, which he knew 
to be as much the dictate of prudence as of 
equity. I find by one of his letters before me, 
dated but a few months after his happy change, 
that he was solicited to improve his interest 
with the earl of Stair, in favour of one whom 
he judged a very worthy person ; and that it 
had been suggested by another who recom* 
mended him, that, if he succeeded, he might 
expect some handsome acknowledgment. 
But he answers with some degree of indigna- 
tion, " Do you imagine I am to be bribed to 
do justice?" for such, it seems, he esteemed 
it, to confer the favour which was asked from 
him on one so deserving. Nothing can more 
effectually tend to humble the enemies of a 
state, than that such maxims should universal- 
ly prevail in it : and, if they do not pievail, 
the worthiest men in an army or fleet may be 
sunk under repeated discouragements, and the 
basest exalted to the infamy of the public, and 
perhaps to its ruin. 

In the midst of all the gentleness which CoI« 
onel Gardiner exercised towards his soldiers, 
he made it very apparent, that he knew how to 
reconcile the tenderness of a real, faithful, and 
condescending friend with the authority of a 
commander. Perhaps hardly any thing con- 



98 COL. GARDINER^S LIFE. 

duced more generally to the maintaining of his 
authority than the strict decorum and good 
manners with which he treated even the pri- 
vate gentlemen of his regiment, which has al- 
ways a great efficacy towards keeping inferiors 
at a proper distance, and forbids in the least 
offensive manner, familiarities which degrade 
the superior, and enervate his influence. The 
calmness and steadiness of his behaviour on all 
occasions did also greatly tend to the same 
purpose. He knew how mean a man looks in 
the transports of passion, and would not use so 
much freedom with any of his men, as to 
fall into such transports before them ; well 
knowing that persons in the lowest rank of life 
are aware how unfit they are to govern others, 
who cannot govern themselves. He was also 
sensible how necessary it is in all who preside 
over others, and especially in military officers, 
to check irregularities when they first begin to 
appear ; and that he might be able to do it, he 
kept a strict inspection over his soldiers ; 
in which view it was observed, that as he gen- 
erally chose to reside among them as much as 
he could, (though in circumstances which 
sometimes occasioned him to deny himself in 
some interests which were very dear to him,) 
so, when they were around him, he seldom 
staid long in a place, but was frequently walk- 
ing the streets, and looking into their quarters 
and stables, as well as reviewing and exercis- 
ing them himself- It has often been observed^ 
that the regiment of which he \yas so many 
years Lieutenant-Colonel, was one of the most 



COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 99 

regular and orderly regiments in the public 
service ; so that perhaps none of our dragoons 
were more welcome than they to the towns 
where their character was known. Yet no 
such bodies of men are so blameless in their 
conduct, but something will be found, espec- 
ially among such considerable numbers, wor* 
thy of censure, and sometimes of punishment. 
This Colonel Gardiner knew how to inflict 
with a becoming resolution, and with all the 
severity which he judged necessary ; a severi- 
ty the more awful and impressing, as it was al- 
ways attended with meekness ; for he well 
knew, that when things are done in a passion, 
it seems only an accidental circumstance that 
they are acts of justice, and that such indecen- 
cies greatly obstruct the ends of punishment, 
both as it relates to reforming offenders, and to 
deterring others from an imitation of their 
faults. 

One instance of his conduct which happened 
at Leicester, and was related by the person 
chiefly concerned, to a worthy friend, from 
whom I had it, I cannot forbear inserting. 
While part of the regiment was encamped in 
the neighbourhood of that place, the Colonel 
went incognito to the camp, in the middle of 
the night ; for he sometimes lodged at his 
quarters in the town. One of the centinels 
then on duty had abandoned his post ; and on 
being seized, broke out into some oaths and 
profane execrations against those that discover- 
ed him ; a crime of which the Colonel had the 
greatest abhorrence, and on which he never 



100 COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 

failed to animadvert. The man afterwards ap- 
peared very much ashamed and concerned for 
what he had done. But the Colonel ordered 
him to be brought early next morning to his 
own quarters, where he had prepared a piquet, 
on which he appointed him a private sort of 
penance ; and while he was put upon it, he 
discoursed with him seriously and tenderly 
upon the evils and aggravations of his fault ; 
admonished him of the divine displeasure 
which he had incurred ; and urged him to ar- 
gue from the pain which he then felt, how 
infinitely more dreadful it must be to fall into 
the hands of the living God, and indeed to 
meet the terrors of that damnation which he 
had been accustomed impiously to call for on 
himself and his companions. The result of 
this proceeding was, that the offender accepted 
his punishment, not only with submission, but 
with thankfulness. He went away with a 
more cordial affection for his Colonel than ever 
he had before ; and spoke of it some years af- 
ter to my friend, in such a manner, that there 
seemed reason to hope it had been instrument- 
al in producing not only a change in his life, 
but in his heart. 

There cannot, I think, be a more proper 
place for mentioning the great reverence this 
excellent officer always expressed for the name 
of the blessed God, and the zeal with which 
he endeavoured to suppress, and if possible to 
extirpate, that detestable sin of swearing and 
cursing which is every where so common ^ and 



COL. GARBINER^S LIFE. 101 

especially among our military men. He often 
declared his sentiments with respect to this 
enormity at the head of his regiment ; and 
urged his captains and their subalterns to take 
the greatest care that they did not give the 
sanction of their example to that, which, by 
their office, they were obliged to punish in 
others. And indeed his zeal on these occa- 
sions wrought in a very active, and sometimes 
in a remarkably successful manner, not only 
among his equals, but sometimes among his 
superiors too. An instance of this in Flanders 
I shall have an opportunity hereafter to pro- 
duce ; at present I shall only mention his con- 
duct in Scotland a Jittle before his death, as I 
have it from a very valuable young minister of 
that country, on whose testimony I can thor« 
oughly depend ; and I wish it may excite ma- 
ny to imitation. 

The commanding^K officer of the king'a 
forces then about Edinburgh, with the other 
Colonels, and several other gentlemen of rank 
in their respective regiments, favoured him 
with their company at Bank ton, and took a 
dinner with him. He too well foresaw what 
might happen amidst such a variety of tempers 
and characters ; and fearing lest his conscience 
might have been ensnared by a sinful silence, 
or that, on the other hand, he might seem to 
pass the bounds of decency, and infringe upon 
the laws of hospitality, by animadverting on 
guests so justly entitled to his regard ; he hap- 
I 2 



102 COL. CARDINER^S LIFJE. 

pily determined on the following method of 
avoiding each of these difficulties. As soon as 
they were come together, he addressed them 
with a great deal of respect, and yet at thb 
same time with a very frank and determined 
air ; and told them that he liad the honour in 
that district to be a justice of the peace, and 
consequently that he was sworn to put the laws 
in execution, and, amongst the rest, those 
against swearing : That he could not execute 
them upon others with any confidence, or by 
any means approve himself as a man of impar- 
tiality and integrity to his own heart, if he suf- 
fered them to be broken in his presence by 
persons of any rank whatsoever : And that 
therefore he intreated all the gentlemen who 
then honoured him with their company, that 
they would please to be upon their guard : 
and that if any oath or curse should escape 
them, he hoped they would consider his legal 
animadversion upon it as a regard to the duties 
of his office and the dictates of his conscience, 
and not as owing to any want of deference to 
them. The commanding officer immediately 
supported him in this declaration, as entirely 
becoming the station in which he was, assuring 
him, that he would be ready to pay the penalty, 
if he inadvertently transgressed ; and w^hen 
Colonel Gardiner on any occasion stepped out 
of the room, he himself undertook to be the 
guardian of the law in his absence ; and as one 
of the inferior officers offended during this 
time, he informed the Colonel ; so that the fine 



COL. GARDIKER^S LIFE. 103 

was exacted, and given to the poor,^ with the 
universal approbation of the company. The 
story spread in the neighbourhood ; and was 
perhaps highly applauded by many who want- 
ed the courage to go and do likewise. But it 
may be said of the worthy person of whom I 
write, with the utmost propriety, that he feared 
the face of no man living, where the honour of 
God was concerned. In all such cases he 
might be justly said, in scripture phrase, to set 
his face like a flint; and 1 assuredly believe, 
that had he been in the presence of a sovereign 
prince who had been guilty of this fault, his 
looks at least, would have testified his grief 
and surprise, if he had apprehended it unfit to 
have borne his testimony any other way. 

Lord Cadogan's regiment of dragoons, dur-. 
ing the years I have mentioned, while he was 
lieutenant-colonel of it, was quartered in a great 
variety of places, both in England and Scot- 
land, from many of which I have letters 
before me ; particularly from Hamilton, Ayr, 
Carlisle, Hereford, Maidenhead, Leicester, 
Warwick, Coventry, Stamford, Harborough, 
Northampton, and several other places, espec- 
ially in our inlaiid parts. The natural conse- 
quence was, that the Colonel, whose character 
was on many accounts so very remarkable, had 

* It is observable, that the money which was forfeited on 
this account by bis own officers, whom he never spared, or 
by any others of his sokhers, who rather chose to pay than 
to submit to corporal punishment, was by the Colonel's order 
laid by in a bank, till some of the private men fell sick, and 
then it was laid out in providing them with proper help aii^ 
accoHimodaticms in their distress. 



104 COL, GARDINER^S LIFE. 

a very extensive acquaintance : And I believe 
I may certainly say, that wherever he was 
known by persons of wisdom and worth, he 
was proportionably respected, and left behind 
him traces of unaffected devotion, humility, 
benevolence, and zeal for the support and ad- 
vancement of religion and virtue. 

The equitable tenor of his mind in these 
respects is illustmted by his letters from sever- 
al of these places ; and though it is but com- 
paratively a small number of them which I 
have now in my hands, yet they will afford 
some valuable extracts, which I shall therefore 
here lay before my reader, that he may the bet* 
ter judge as to his real character, in particulars 
of which I have already discoursed, or which 
may hereafter occur. 

In a letter to his lady, dated from Carlisle, 
Nov. 19, 1733, when he was on his journey 
to Herefordshire, he breathes out his grateful 
and cheerful soul in these words : ^^ I bless 
God I was never better in my lifetime ; and I 
wish I could be so happy as to hear the same of 
you ; or rather (in other words) to hear that 
you had obtained an entire trust in God. That 
would infallibly keep you in perfect peace ; 
for the God of truth hath promised it. Oh, 
how ought we to be longing to be with Christ, 
which is infinitely better than any thing we can 
propose here ! to be there, where all com- 
plaints shall be forever banished ; where no 
mountains shall separate between God and our 
souls : And 1 hope it will be some addition to 
our happiness, that you and I shall be separated 



COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 105 

no more ; but that, as we have joined in sing- 
ing the praises of our glorious Redeemer here, 
we shall sing them in a much higher key 
through an endless eternity. Oh eternity, 
eternity ! What a wonderful thought is eter- 
nity V 

From Leicester, August 6, 1739, he writes 
thus to his lady : '' Yesterday 1 was at the 
Lord's table, where you and the children were 
not forgotten : But how wonderfully was I 
assisted when I came home, to plead for you 
all with many tears !" And then, speaking of 
some intimate friends, who were impatient (as 
I suppose by the connexion,) for his return to 
them, he takes occasion to observe the necessi- 
ty ** of endeavouring to compose our minds, 
and to say with the Psalmist, My soul, wait 
thou only upon God." Afterwards, speaking 
of one of his children, of whom he heard that 
he made a commendable progress in learning, 
he expresses his satisfaction in it, and adds, 
** But how much greater joy would it give me 
to hear, that he was greatly advanced in the 
school of Christ ! Oh that our children may 
but be wise to salvation, and may grow in 
grace as they do in stature !" 

These letters, which to so familiar a friend 
evidently lay open the heart, and shew the ideas 
and affections which were lodged deepest there, 
are sometimes taken up wdth an account of ser- 
mons he had attended, and the impression they 
had made upon his mind. I shall mention one 
only, as a specimen of many more, which was 
dated from a place called Cohorn, April 15. 



106 COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 

** We had here a minister from Wales, who 
gave us two excellent discourses on the love oi 
Christ to us, as an argument to engage our love 
to him. And indeed, next to the greatness of 
his love to us, methinks there is nothing so as- 
tonishing as the coldness of our love to him. 
Oh that he would shed abroad his love upon 
our hearts by his Holy Spirit, that ours might 
be kindled into a flame ! May God enable you 
to trust in him, and then you will be kept in 
perfect peace !'' 

We have met wath many traces of that ha- 
bitual gratitude to the blessed God, as his heav- 
enly Father and constant friend, which made 
his life probably one of the happiest that ever 
w^as spent on earth. I cannot omit one more, 
which appears to me the more worthy of notice, 
as being a short turn in as hasty a letter as any 
I remember to have seen of his, which he 
wrote from Leicester in June, 1739. " lam 
now under the deepest sense of the many fa- 
vours the Almighty has bestowed upon me : 
Surely you will help me to celebrate the praises 
of our gracious God and kind benefactor.'' 
This exuberance of grateful affection, which, 
w^hile it was almost every hour pouring itself 
forth before God in the most genuine and em- 
phatical language, felt itself still as it were strait- 
enedfor want of a sufficient vent, and therefore 
called on others to help him with their concur- 
reiit praises, appears to me the most glorious 
aiid happy state in w hich a human soul can find 
itself on this side heaven. 



COL. Gardiner's life. 107 

Such was the temper which this excellent 
man appears to have carried along with him 
through such a variety of places and circum- 
stances ; and the whole of his deportment was 
suitable to these impressions. Strangers were 
agreeably struck with his first appearance ; 
there was so much of the christian, the well- 
bred man, and the universal friend in it ; and 
as they came more intimately to know him, 
they discovered more and more the uniformity 
and consistency of his whole temper and beha- 
viour ; so that, whether he made only a visit 
for a few days to any place, or continued there 
for many weeks or months, he was always be- 
loved and esteemed, and spoken of with that 
honourable testimony from persons of the most 
different denominations and parties, which 
nothing but true sterling worth, (if I may be 
allowed the expression) and that in an eminent 
degree, can secure. 

Of the justice of this testimony, which I had 
so often heard from a variety of persons, I my- 
self began to be a witness, about the time when 
the last mentioned letter was dated. In this 
view I believe I shall never forget that happy 
day, June 13, 1739, when I first met him at 
Leicester. I remember I happened that day 
to preach a lecture from Psalm cxix. 158. / 
beheld the transgressors^ and was grieved, be- 
cause they kept not thy law. I was large in de- 
scribing that mixture of indignation and grief 
(strongly expressed by the original word there) 
with which the good man looks on the daring 
transgressors of the divine law ; and in tracing 



108 COL. GARDINER'S LIFE* 

the causes of that grief, as arising from a regard 
to the divine honour, and the interest of a Re- 
deemer, and a compassionate concern for the 
misery such oftenders bring on themselves, and 
for the mischief they do to the world about them. 
J little thought how exactly I was drawing Col- 
onel Gardiner's character under each of these 
heads ; and I have often reflected upon it as a 
happy providence, which opened a much speedi- 
er way than 1 could have expected, to the 
breast of one of the most amiable and useful 
friends which I ever expect to find upon earth. 
We afterwards sung a hymn, w^hich brought 
over again some of the leading thoughts in the 
sermon, and struck him so strongly, that on ob- 
taining a copy of it, he committed it to his 
memory, and used to repeat it with so forcible 
an accent, as shewed how much every line ex- 
pressed of his very soul. In this view, the rea- 
der will pardon my inserting it ; especially, as 
I know not when I may get time to publish a 
volume of these serious, though artless com<- 
pohures, which I sent him in manuscript some 
years ago, and to which I have since made ve- 
ry large additions : 

Arise, my tenderest thoughts, arise, 
To torrents melt my streaming eyes ! 
And thou, my lieart, with anguish feel 
Those evils which thou canst not heal £ 

See human nature sunk in shame ! 
See scandals p >ur'd on Jesus' name ! 
The Father wounded thro* the Son ! 
The world abus'd, the soul undone ! 



COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 109 

See the short course of vain delight 
Closing in everlasting night ! 
In flames that no abatement know, 
The briny tears forever flow. 

My God, I feel the mournful scene j 
My bowels yearn o^er dying men : 
And fain my pity would reclaim, 
And snatch the firebrands from the flameo 

But feeble my compassion proves, ^ 

And can but weep where most it loveS : 
Thine own all-saving arm employ, 
And turn these drops of grief to joy ! 

The Colonel, immediately after the concliu 
sion of the service, met me in the vestry and 
embraced me in the most obliging and affec- 
tionate manner, as if there had been a long 
friendship between us ; assured me, that he 
had for some years been intimately acquainte(3 
with my writings ; and desired that we might 
concert measures for spending some hours to- 
gether before I left the town. I was so happy 
as to be able to secure an opportunity of 
doing it ; and I must leave it upon record, 
that I cannot recollect I was ever equally edi- 
fied by any conversation I remember to have 
enjoyed. We passed that evening and the 
next morning together ; and it is impossible 
for me to describe the impression which the 
interview left upon my heart. I rode alone all 
the remainder of the day ; and it was my un- 
speakable happiness that I was alone, since I 
could be no longer with him ; for I can hardly 
conceive what other company would not then 

K 



110 COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 

have been an incumbrance. The views which 
he gave me even then, (for he began to repose 
a most obliging confidence in me, though he 
concealed some of the most extraordinary cir- 
cum stances of the methods by which he had 
been recovered to God and happiness,) with 
those cordial sentiments of evangelical piety 
and extensive goodness, which he poured out 
int5 my bosom with so endearing a freedom, 
fired my very soul, and I hope I may truly say 
(what I wish and pray many of my readers 
may also adopt for themselves) that I glorified 
God in him. Our epistolary correspondence 
immediately commenced upon my return ; 
and though, through the multiplicity of busi- 
ness on both sides, it suffered many interrup- 
tions, it was in some degree the blessing of all 
the following years of my life, till he fell by 
those unreasonable and wicked men, who had 
it in their hearts with him to have destroyed all 
our glory, defence and happiness. 

The first letter I received from him was so 
remarkable, that some persons of eminent piety, 
to whom I commimicated it, would not be 
content without copying it, or making some 
extracts from it. I persuade myself that my 
devout reader will not be displeased, that I in- 
sert the greatest part of it here, especially as it 
serves to illustrate the affectionate sense which 
he had of the divine goodness in his conversion, 
though more than twenty years had passed 
since that memorable event happened. Hav- 
ing mentioned my ever dear and honoured 
kiend, Dr. Isaac Watts, on an occasion which 



COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. Ill 

I hinted at above, (Page 77.) he adds, '' I have 
beenin pain these several years, lest thatexcellent 
person, that sweet singer in our Israel, should 
have been called to heaven before I had an op- 
portunity of letting him know how much his 
works have been blessed to me, and of course, 
of returning him my hearty thanks : for though 
it is owing to the operation of the blessed 
Spirit that any thing works effectually upon 
our hearts, yet if we are not thankful to the in- 
strument which God is pleased to make use of, 
^hom we do see^ how shall we be thankful to 
the Almighty, whom we have not seen ? I de- 
sire to bless God for the good news of his re- 
covery, and entreat you to tell him, that al- 
though I cannot keep pace with him here in 
celebrating the high praises of our glorious Re- 
deemer, which is the greatest grief of my heart, 
yet I am persuaded, that when I join the glo* 
rious company above, where there will be no 
drawbacks, none will outsing me there, be- 
cause I shall not find any that will be more in- 
debted to the wonderful riches of divine grace 
than I. 

" Give me a place at thy saints* feet, 
Or some fallen angel's vacant seat ; 
I'll strive to sing as loud as they, 
Who sit above in brighter day." 



(( 



I know it is natural for every pne, who 
has felt the almighty power which raised our 
glorious Redeemer from the grave, to believe 
his case singular : but I have made every one 
in this respect submit, as soon as he has heard 



112 COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 

my story. And if you seemed to be surprised 
at the account which I gave you, what will 
you be when you hear it all ! 

^ Oh if I had an atigel's voice, 
And could be heard from pole to pole ; 

1 would to all the list'ning world 
Proclaim thy goodness to my soul.'^ 

He then concludes, after some expressions 
of endearment, (which, with whatever pleasure 
I review them, I must not here insert ; ) ''If 
you knew what a natural aversion I have to 
writing, you would be astonished at the length 
of this letter, which is, I believe, the longest I 
ever wrote. But my heart warms when I 
WTite to you, which makes my pen move the 
easier. I hope it will please our gracious God 
long to preserve you a blessed instrument in 
his hand of doing great good in the church of 
Christ ; and that you may always enjoy a 
thriving soul in a healthy body, shall be the con- 
tinual prayer of,'' &c. 

As our intimacy grew, our mutual affection 
increased ; and '' my dearest friend," was the 
form of address with w^hich most of his epistles 
of the last years, were begun and ended. 
Many of them are filled up with his sentiments 
of those writings which I published during these 
years, which he read with great attention, and 
of whicli he speaks in terms which it becomes 
nie to suppress, and to impute in a considera- 
ble degree to the kind prejudices of so endear- 
ed a friendship. He gives me repeated assur- 
ances, " that he is daily mindful of me in his 



COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 113 

prayers ;" a circumstance which I cannot rec- 
ollect without the greatest thankfulness; the 
loss of which I should more deeply lament, did 
I not hope that the happy effect of these pray- 
ers might still continue, and might run into all 
my remaining days. 

It might be a pleasure to me, to make sever- 
al extracts from many others of his letters ; 
but it is a pleasure which I ought to suppress, 
and rather to reflect with unfeigned humility, 
how unworthy I was of such regards from such 
a person, and of that divine goodness, which 
gave me such a friend in him. I shall there- 
fore only add two general remarks, which of- 
fer themselves from several of his letters. The 
one is, that there is in some of them, as our 
freedom increased, an agreeable vein of hu- 
mour and pleasantry ; which shews how easy 
religion sat upon him, and how far he was 
from placing any part of it in a gloomy melan- 
choly, or stiiF formality. The other is, that he 
frequently refers to domestic circumstances, 
such as the illness or recovery of my children, 
&c. which I am surprised how a man of his 
extensive and important business could so dis- 
tinctly bear upon his mind. But his memory 
was good, and his heart was yet better ; and 
his friendh^hip was such, that nothing which 
sensibly affected the heart of one whom he hon- 
cured with it, left his own but slightly touched. 
I have all imaginable reason to believe, that 
in many instances his prayers were not 
only offered for us in general terms, but varied 
K 2 



114 COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 

as our particular situation required. Many 
quotations might verify this ; but I decline 
troubling the reader with an enumeration of 
passages, in which it was only the abundance 
of friendly sympathy that gave this truly great, 
as well as good man, so cordial a concern. 

After this correspondence^ carried on for the 
space of about three years, and some inter- 
views which we had enjoyed at different places, 
he came to spend some time witli us at North- 
ampton, and brought with him his lady and 
his two eldest children. I had here an oppor- 
tunity of taking a much nearer view of his 
character, and surveying it in a much greater 
variety of lights than before ; and my esteem 
for him increased, in proportion to these op- 
portunities. What I have wrote above, with 
respect to his conduct in relative life, was in a 
great measure drawn from what I now saw : 
And I shall mention here some other points in 
his behaviour, which particularly struck my 
mind ; and likewise shall touch on his senti- 
ments on some topics of importance, which 
he freely communicated to me, and which I 
remarked on account of that wisdom and pro- 
priety which I apprehended in them. 

There was nothing more openly observable 
in Colonel Gardiner, than the exemplary grav- 
ity, composure, and reverence, with which he 
attended public worship. Copious as he was 
in his secret devotions, before he engaged in 
it, he always began them so early as not to be 
retarded by them when he sliould resort to the 
house of God. He, and all his soldiers who 



COL. GARDINER^S EIFE, 115 

chose to worship with him, were generally 
there (as I have already hinted) before the 
service began, that the entrance of so many at 
once might not disturb the congregation 
already engaged in devotion, and that there 
might be the better opportunity for bringing the 
iTiind to a becoming attention, and preparing it 
for converse with the divine Being, While 
acts of worship were going on, whether of 
prayer or singing, he always stood up : and 
whatever regard he might have for persons 
who passed by him at that time, though it 
were to come into the same pew, he never paid 
any compliment to them : And often has he 
expressed his wonder at the indecorum of 
breaking olF our address to God, to bow to a 
fellow- creature, which he thought a much 
greater indecency than it would be, on a like 
occasion and circumstance, to interrupt an ad- 
dress to our prince. During the time of 
preaching, his eye was commonly fixed upon 
the minister, though sometimes turned round 
upon the auditory, where, if he observed any 
to trifle, it filled him with just indignation. 
And I have known instances, in which, upon 
making the remark, he has communicated it to 
some friend of the persons who were guilty of 
it, that proper application might be made to 
prevent it for the time to c'ome. 

A more devout communicant at the table of 
the Lord, has perhaps seldom been any where 
known. Often have I had the pleasure to see 
that manly countenance softened to all the 
marks of humiliation and contrition, on this oc- 



116 COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 

casion ; and to discern, in spite of all his ef- 
forts to conceal them, streams of tears flowing 
down from his eyes, while he has been direct- 
ing them to those memorials of his Redeemer's 
love. And some who have conversed inti- 
mately with him after he came from that ordi- 
nance, have observed a visible abstraction 
from surronnding objects, by which there 
seemed reason to imagine that his soul was 
wrapped up in holy contemplation. And I 
particularly remember, that when we had once 
spent great part of the following Monday in 
riding together, he made an apology to me 
for b- ing so absent as he seemed, by telling 
me, '' that his heart was flown upw^ards, before 
he was aware, to him whom not having seen he 
loved ;^ and that he was rejoicing in him with 
such unspeakable joy, that he could not hold 
it down to creature converse." 

In all the offices of friendship he was remark- 
ably ready, and had a most sweet and engaging 
manner of performing them, which greatly- 
heightened the obligations he conferred. He 
seemed not to set any high value upon any 
benefit he bestow^ed ; but did it without the 
least parade, as a thing which in those circum- 
stances came of course, w here he had profess- 
ed love and respect ; which he was not over 
forw^ard to do, though he treated strangers, and 
those who were most his inferiors, very courte- 
ously, end always seemed, because he in 

* N. B. This alluded to the subject 0* the sermon the day 
before, which was 1 Pet. i. 8. 



COL. Gardiner's life. 117 

truth always was, glad of any opportunity of 
doing them good. 

He was particularly zealous in vindicating 
the reputation of his friends in their absence ; 
and though I cannot recollect that I had ever 
an opportunity of observing this immediately, 
as I do not know that 1 ever was present with 
him when any ill was spoken of others at all ; 
yet by what I have heard him say, with relation 
to attempts to injure the character of worthy 
and useful men, I have reason to believe, that 
no man living was more sensible of the base- 
ness and infamy, as well as the cruelty of such 
a conduct. He knew and despised the low 
principles of resentment for unreasonable ex- 
pectations disappointed, of personal attachment 
to men, of some crossing interests, of envy, and 
of party-zeal, from whence such a conduct of- 
ten proceeds ; and was particularly oftended, 
when he found it (as he frequently did) in 
persons that set up for the greatest patrons of 
liberty, virtue, and candour. He looked upon 
the murderers of reputation and useful- 
ness as some of the vilest pests of society ; 
and plainly shewed, on every proper occasion, 
that he thought it the part of a generous, be- 
nevolent, and courageous man, to exert him- 
self in tracing and hunting down the slander, 
that the authors or abettors of it might be less 
capable of doing mischief for the future. 

The most plausible objection that I ever 
heard to Colonel Gardiner's character is, that 
he was too much attached to some religious 
principles, established indeed in the churches 



118 COL. Gardiner's life. 

both of England and Scodand, but which have 
of late J ears been much disputed, and from 
which, it is at least generally supposed, not a 
few in both have thought proper to depart ; 
M hatever expedients they may have found to 
quiet their consciences, in subscribing those 
formularies in which they are plainly taught. 
HivS zeal was especially apparent in opposiuon 
to those doctrines which seemed to derogate 
from the divine honours of the Son and Spirit 
of God, and from the freedom of divine grace, 
or the reality and necessity of its operations in 
the conversion and salvation of sinners. 

With relation to these, I must observe, that 
it was his most steadfast persuasion, that all 
those notions which represent our blessed 
Redeemer and the Holy Spirit as mere crea- 
tures, or which set aside the atonement of the 
former, or the influence of the latter, do sap 
the very foundation of Christianity, by rejecting 
the most glorious doctrines peculiar to it. He 
had attentively observed, (what indeed is too 
obvious,) the unhappy influence which the deni- 
al of these principles often has on the charac- 
ter of ministers, and on their success ; and was 
persuaded, that an attempt to substitute that 
mutilated form of Christianity which lemains, 
when these essentials of it are taken away, has 
proved one of the most successful methods 
which the great enemy of souls has ever taken 
in these latter days to lead men, by insensible 
degrees, into deism, vice, and perdition. He 
also sagaciously observed the artful manner in 
which obnoxious tenets are often maintained and 



COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 119 

insinuated, with all that mixture of zeal and 
address with which they are propagated in the 
world, even by those who had most solemnly 
professed to believe, and engaged to teach the 
contrary : And as he really apprehended, that 
the glory of God and the salvation of souls was 
concerned, his piety and charity made him 
eager and strenuous in opposing what he 
judged to be errors of so pernicious a nature. 
Yet I must declare, that according to what I 
have known of him, (and I believe he opened 
his heart on these topics to me with as much 
freedom as to any man Hving,) he was not 
ready, upon light suspicions, to charge tenets 
which he thought so pernicious on any, espec- 
ially where he saw the appearances of a good 
temper and life, which he always reverenced 
and loved in persons of all sentiments and pro- 
fessions. He severely condemned causeless 
jealousies, and evil surmisings of every kind ; 
and extended that charity in this respect, both 
to clergy and laity, which good bishop Burnet 
was so ready, according to his own account, 
to limit to the latter, ' ' of believing every man 
good till he knew him to be bad, and his no- 
tions right till he knew them wrong.'* He 
could not but be very sensible of the unhappy 
consequences which may follow on attacking 
the characters of men, especially of those who 
are ministers of the gospel : And if, through a 
mixture of human frailty, from which the best 
of men, in the best of their meanings and in- 
tentions, are not entirely free, he has ever, ia 
the warmth of his heart, dropped a word which 



120 COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 

might be injurious to any on that account, 
(which I believe very seldom happened,) he 
would glady retract it on better information ; 
which was perfectly agreeable to that honest 
and generous frankness of temper in which I 
never knew any man who exceeded him. 

Oil the whole, it was indeed his deliberate 
judgment, that the Arian, Socinian, and Pelagi- 
gian doctrines were highly dishonourable to 
God, and dangerous to the souls of men ; and that 
it was the duty of private christians to be great- 
ly on their guard against those ministers by 
whom they are entertained, lest their minds 
should be corrupted from the simplicity that is 
in Christ. Yet he sincerely abhorred the thought 
of persecution for conscience' sake ; of the ab- 
surdity and iniquity of which, in all its kinds 
and degrees, he had as deep and rational a con- 
viction as any man I could name. And indeed 
the generosity of his heroic heart could hardly 
bear to think, that those glorious truths, which 
he so cordially loved, and which he assuredly 
believed to be capable of such fair support, 
both from reason and the word of God, should 
be disgraced by methods of defence and propa- 
gation common to the most impious and ridic- 
ulous falsehoods. Nor did he by any means 
approve of passionate and furious ways of vin- 
dicating the most vital and important doctrines 
of the gospel : For he knew, that to maintain 
the mobt benevolent religion in the world by 
such malevolent a »d infernal methods, was de- 
stroy ing the end to accomplish the means ; and 
that it was as impossible that true Christianity 



COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 121 

should be supported thus, as it is that a man 
should long be nourished by eating his own flesh. 
To display the genuine fruits of Christianity in a 
good life, to be ready to plead with meekness 
and sweetness for the doctrines it teaches, and 
to labour by every office of humanity and good- 
ness to gain upon them that oppose it, were the 
weapons with which this good soldier of Jesus 
Christ faithfully fought the battles of the Lord. 
These weapons will always be victorious in his 
cause ; and they who have recourse to others 
of a different temperature, how strong soever 
they may seem, and how sharp soever they may 
really be, will find they break in their hands 
when they exert them most furiously, and are 
much more likely to wound themselves than to 
conquer the enemies they oppose. 

But while 1 am speaking of Colonel Gardi- 
ner's charity in this respect, I must not omit 
that of another kind, which has indeed engross- 
ed the name of charity much more than it 
ought, excellent as it is ; I mean almsgiving, 
for which he was very remarkable. I have of- 
ten wondered how he was able to do so many 
generous things this way : But his frugality 
fed the spring. He made no pleasurable ex- 
pense on himself; and was contented with a 
very decent appearance in his family, without 
affecting such an air of grandeur as could not 
have been supported without sacrificing to it 
satisfactions far nobler, and to a temper like his 
far more delightful. The lively and tender 
feelings of his heart in favour of the distressed 



122 COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 

and aiBicted, made it a self-indulgence to him 
to relieve them : and the deep conviction he 
had of the vain and transitory nature of the en- 
joyments of this VI orld, together with the sub^ 
lime view he had of another, engaged him to 
dispense his bounties with a very liberal hand, 
and even to seek out proper objects of them : 
And above all, his sincere and ardent love to 
the Lord Jesus Christ engaged him to feel, 
with a true sympathy, the concerns of his poor 
members. In consequence of this, he honour- 
ed several of his friends with commissions for 
the relief of the poor ; and particularly, with re- 
lation to some under my pastoral care, he refer- 
red it to my discretion, to supply them with 
what I should judge expedient : and frequent- 
ly pressed me in his letters to be sure not to let 
them want. And where persons, standing in 
need of his charity, happened, as they often 
did, to be persons of remarkably religious 
dispositions, it was easy to perceive, that he 
not only loved, but honoured them, and really 
esteemed it an honour which Providence con- 
ferred upon him, that he should be made, as it 
were, the almoner of God for the relief of such* 
I cannot forbear relating a little story here, 
which, when the Colonel himself heard it, gave 
him such exquisite pleasure, that I hope it will 
be acceptable to several of my readers. There 
was in a village about three miles from North- 
ampton, and in a family which, of all others 
near me, was afterwards most indebted to him, 
(though he had never then seen any member 
of it) an aged and poor, but eminently good 



COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 123. 

woman, who had, with great difficulty, in the 
exercise of much faith and patience, diligence 
and humility, made shift to educate a large 
family of children, after the death of her hus- 
band, without being chargeable to the parish ; 
which, as it was quite beyond her hope, she 
often spoke of with great delight. At length, 
when worn out with age and infirmities, she 
lay upon her dying bed, she did, in a most 
lively and affecting manner, express her hope 
and joy in the views of approaching glory. 
Yet, amidst all the triumph of such a pros- 
pect, there was one remaining care and dis- 
tress which lay heavy on her mind; which was, 
that as her journey and her stock of provisions 
w^ere both ended together, she feared that she 
must either be buried at the parish expense, or 
leave her most dutiful and affectionate daugh- 
ters the house stripped of some of the few 
moveables which remained in it, to perform 
the last office of duty to her, which, she had 
reason to believe, they would do. While she 
was combating with this only remaining anxie« 
ty, I happened, though I knew not the extrem- 
ity of her illness, to come in, and to bring 
with me a guinea, which the generous Colonel 
had sent by a special message, on hearing the 
character of the family, for its relief. A pres- 
ent like this, (probably the most considerable 
they had ever received in their lives,) coming 
in this manner from an entire stranger, at such 
a crisis of time, threw my dying friend, (for 
such, amidst all her poverty, I rejoiced to call 
her) into a perfect transport of joy. She es- 



124 COL. GARDINER'S LIFE 

teemed it a singular favour of Providence, setft 
to her in her last moments, as a token of good, 
and greeted it as a special mark of that loving- 
kindness of God which should attend her for- 
ever. She would, therefore, be raised up in 
her bed, that she might bless God for it upon 
her knees, and with her last breath pray for 
her kind and generous benefactor, and for him 
who had been the instrument of directing his 
bounty into this channel. After which she 
soon expired, with such tranquillity and sweet- 
ness as could not but most sensibly delight all 
who beheld her, and occasioned many who 
knew the circumstances, to glorify God on 
her behalf. 

The Colonel's last residence at Northamp- 
ton was in June and July, 1742, when Lord 
Cadogan's regiment of dragoons was quarter- 
ed here ; and I cannot but observe, that 
wherever that regiment came, it was remarka- 
ble not only for the fine appearance it made, 
and for the exactness with which it performed 
its various exercises, (of which it had about 
this time the honour to receive the most illus- 
trious testimonials,) but also for the great so- 
briety and regularity of the soldiers. Many of 
the officers copied after the excellent pattern 
which they had daily before their eyes ; and a 
considerable number of the private men seem- 
ed to be persons not only of strict virtue, but 
of serious piety. And I doubt not but they 
found their abundant account in it, not only in 
the serenity and happiness of their own 
minds, which is beyond comparison the most 



COL. carbiner's life* 12S 

important consideration ; but also in some 
degree, in the obliging and respectful 
treatment which they generally met with in 
their quarters. And I mention this, because 
I am persuaded, that if gentlemen of their pro- 
fession knew, and would reflect, how much 
more comfortable they make their own quar« 
ters, by a sober, orderly, and obliging con- 
duct, they would be regular out of mere self 
love, if they were not influenced, as I heartily 
wish they may always be, by a nobler princi- 
ple. 

Towards the latter end of this year he em- 
barked for Flanders, and spent some consid- 
erable time with the regiment at Ghent, where 
he much regretted ihe want of those religious 
ordinances and opportunities which had made 
his other abodes delightful. But as he had 
made so eminent a progress in that divine life 
which they are all intended to promote, he could 
not be unactive in the cause of God. I have 
now before me a letter dated from thence, 
October 16, 1742, in which he writes, ^'As 
for me, I am indeed in a dry and barren land, 
where no water is. Rivers of waters run 
down mine eyes, because nothing is to be 
heard in our Sodom, but blaspheming the 
name of my God ; and I am not honoured as 
the instrument of doing any great service. 
It is true, I have reformed six or seven field 
officers of swearing. I dine every day with 
them, and have entered them into a voluntary 
contract; to pay a shilling to the poor for every 
L 2 



126 COL* Gardiner's life. 

oath ; and it is wonderful to observe the efFecl 
it has had ah eady. One of them told me this 
day at dinner, that it had really such an influ- 
ence upon him, that being at cards last night, 
when another officer fell a swearing, he was not 
able to bear it, but rose up and left the compa- 
ny. So you see restraints, at first arising from 
a low principle, may improve into something 
better." 

During his abode here he had a great deal of 
business upon his hands ; and had also in some 
marches the care of more regiments than his 
own : And it has been very delightful to me to 
observe, what a degree of converse with heaven, 
and the God of it, he maintained, amidst these 
scenes of hurry and fatigue, of which the reader 
may find a remarkable specimen in the follow- 
ing letter, dated from Litchwick in the begin- 
ning of April, 1743, which was one of the last 
I received from him while abroad, and be- 
gins with these words : *' Yesterday, being the 
Lord's day, at six in the morning, I had the 
pleasure of receiving yours at Nortonick : and 
it proved a Sabbath day's blessing to me* 
Some time before itreached me,'' from whence, 
by the way it may be observed, that his former 
custom of rising so early to his devotion was 
still retained, *^ I had been wrestling with God 
with many tears ; and when 1 had read it, I 
returned to my knees again, to give hearty 
thanks to him for all his goodness to you and 
yours, and also to myself, in that he hath 
been pleased to stir up so many who are dear 
to him, to be mindful of me at the throne of 



COL. GAPvDINJER^S LIFE. 127 

grace. '^ And then, after the mention of some 
other particulars, he adds, '' Blessed and ador- 
ed forever be the holy name of my heavenly 
Father, who holds my soul in life, and my 
body in perfect health ! Were I to recount his 
mercy and goodness to me, even in the midst 
of all these hurries, I should never have done. 
I hope your master vAll still encourage you in 
his work, and make you a blessing to many. 
My dearest friend, I am much more yours, 
than I can express, and shall remain so while I 
am J. G.'' 

In this correspondence I had a farther op- 
portunity of discovering that humble resigna- 
tion to the will of God which made so amiable 
a part of his character, and of which before I 
had seen so many instances. He speaks, in 
the letter from which I have just been giving 
an extract, of the hope he had expressed in 
formqr letters, of seeing us again that winter ; 
and he adds, "To be sure, it would have 
been a great pleasure to me; but we ix)or 
mortals form projects, and the Almighty Ruler 
of the universe disposes of all as he pleases. 
A great many of us were getting ready for our 
return to England, when we received an order 
to march towards Frankfort, to the great sur- 
prise of the whole army : neither can any of 
us comprehend what we are to do there ; for 
there is no enemy in that country, the French 
army being marched into Bavaria, where I am 
sure we cannot follow them. But it is the will 
of the Lord ; and his will be done ! I desire to 
bless and praise my heavenly Father, that I an\ 



128 COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 

entirely resigned to it. It is no matter where 
I go, or what becomes of me, so that God may 
be glorified in my life or my death. I should 
rejoice much to hear that all my friends were 
equally resigned." 

The mention of this article reminds me of 
another, relating to the views which he had of 
obtaining a regiment for himself. He endeav- 
oured to deserve it by the most faithful services, 
some of them indeed beyond what the strength 
of his constitution would well bear ; for the 
weather in some of these marches proved ex- 
ceeding bad, and yet he would be always at 
the head of his people, that he might look to 
every thing that concerned them with the ex- 
actest care. This obliged him to neglect the 
beginnings of a feverish illness, the natural 
consequence of which was, that it grew very 
formidable, forced a long confinement upon 
him, and gave animal nature a shock which it 
never recovered. 

In the mean time, as he had the promise of a 
regiment before he quitted England, his friends 
were continually expecting an occasion of con- 
gratulating him on having received the com- 
mand of one. But still they were disappoint- 
ed ; and on some of them the disappointment 
seemed to sit heavy. As for the Colonel him- 
self, he seemed quite easy about it ; and ap- 
peared much greater in that easy situation of 
mind, than the highest military honours and 
preferments could have made him. With 
great pleasure do I at this moment recollect 
the unaffected serenity, and even indifference^ 



COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 129 

with which he expresses himself upon this oc- 
casion, ilia letter to me, dated about the be- 
ginning of April, 1743. *' The disappointment 
of a regiment is nothing to me ; for I am satis- 
fied, that, had it been for God's glory, I should 
have had it ; and I should have been sorry to 
have had it on any other terms. My heavenly- 
Father has bestowed upon me infinitely more 
than if he had made me emperor of the whole 
world." 

I find several parallel expressions in other 
letters ; and those to his lady about the same 
time were just in the same strain. In an ex- 
tract from one which was written from Aix la 
Chapelle, April 21, the same year, I meet with 
these words : ^' People here imagine I must be 
sadly troubled that I have not got a regiment, 
(for six out of seven vacant are now disposed 
of : ) but they are strangely mistaken ; for it 
has given me no sort of trouble : My heavenly 
Father knows what is best for me ; and bless- 
ed and forever adored be his name, he has 
given me an entire resignation to his will : Be- 
sides, I do not know that ever I met with any 
disappointment since I was a christian, but it 
pleased God to discover to me, that it was 
plainly for my advantage, by bestowing some- 
thing better upon me afterwards : Many in- 
stances of which I am able to produce ; and 
therefore I should be the greatest of monsters 
if I did not trust in him." 

I should be guilty of a great omission, if I 
were not to add how remarkably the event cor- 
responded with his faith on this occasion. Forj 



130 cot. GARDINER'S LIFE. 

whereas he had no intimation or expectation of 
any thing more than a regiment of foot, his 
Majesty was pleased, out of hiis great goodness, 
to give him a regiment of dragoons, which was 
then quartered just in his own neighbourhood. 
And it is properly remarked by the reverend 
and worthy person through whose hands this 
letter was transmitted to me, that when the 
Colonel thus expressed himself, he could have 
no prospect of what he afterwards so soon ob- 
tained, as General Bland's regiment, to which 
he was advanced, was only vacant on the 19th 
of April ; that is, two days before the date of 
this letter, when it was impossible he should 
have any notice of that vacancy. And it also 
deserves observation, that some few days after 
the Colonel w^as thus unexpectedly promoted 
to the command of these dragoons. Brigadier 
Cornwallis's regiment of foot, then in Flanders, 
became vacant. Now, had this happened be- 
fore his promotion to General Bland's, Colonel 
Gardiner, in all probability, would only have 
had that regiment of foot, and so have contin- 
ued in Flanders. When the affair was issued, 
he informs Lady Frances of it, in a letter 
dated from a village near Frankfort, May 3, in 
which he refers to his former of the 21st April, 
observing how remarkably it was verified, *^ in 
God's having given him" (for so he expresses 
it, agreeably to the views he continually main- 
tained of the universal agency of divine provi- 
dence) ''what he had no expectation of, and 
what was so much better than that which he 



COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 131 

had missed, a regiment of dragoons quartered 
at his own door." 

It appeared to him, that by this remarkable 
event, Providence called him home. Accord- 
ingly, though he had other preferments offered 
him in the army, he chose to return ; and, I 
believe, the more willingly, as he did not ex- 
pect there would have been any action. Just 
at this time it pleased God to give him an aw- 
ful instance of the uncertainty of human pros- 
pects and enjoyments, by that violent fever 
which seized him at Ghent in his way to Eng- 
land ; and perhaps the more severely for the 
efforts he made to push on his journey, though 
he had for some days been much indisposed. 
It was, I think, one of the first fits of severe 
illness he had ever met with ; and he was 
ready to look upon it as a sudden call into 
eternity : But it gave him no painful alarm in 
that view. He committed himself to the God 
of his life ; and in a few weeks he was so well 
recovered, as to be capable of pursuing his 
journey, though not without difficulty : And I 
cannot but think it might have conduced much 
to a more perfect recovery than he ever attain- 
ed, to have allowed himself a longer repose, in 
order to recruit his exhausted strength and 
spirits. But there was an activity in his tem- 
per not easy to be restrained ; and it was now 
stimulated, not only by a desire of seeing his 
friends, but of being with his regiment ; that 
he might omit nothing in his power to regulate 
their morals and their discipline, and to form 
them for public service. Accordingly, he 



132 COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 

passed through London, about the middle of 
June, 1743, where he had the honour of waiting 
on their Royal Highnesses the Prince and 
Princess of Wales, and of receiving from both 
the most obliging tokens of favour and 
esteem. He arrived at Northampton on 
Monday the twentieth of June, and spent 
part of three days here. But the great pleas- 
ure which his return and preferment gave us 
was much abated by observing his countenance 
so sadly altered, and the many marks of lan- 
guor and remaining disorder w'hich evidently 
appeared : so that he really looked ten years 
older than he had done ten months before. I 
liad however a satisfaction sufficient to counter- 
balance much of the concern which this altera- 
tion gave me, in a renewed opportunity of ob- 
serving, indeed more sensibly than ever, in 
how remarkable a degree he was dead to the 
enjoyments and views of this mortal life. 
When I congratulated him on the favourable 
appearances of Providence for him in the late 
event, he briefly told me the remarkable cir- 
cumstances that attended it, with the most gen- 
uine impressions of gratitude to God for 
them ; but added, " that as his account was 
increased with his income, power, and influ- 
ence, and his cares were proportionably in- 
creased too, it was, as to his own personal 
concern, much the same to him, whether 
he had remained in his former station, or been 
elevated to this ; but that if God should by 
this, means honour him, as an instrument of 



COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 133 

doing more good than he could otherwise have 
done, he should rejoice in it." 

I perceived that the near views he had taken of 
eternity, in the illness from which he was then 
so imperfectly recovered, had not in the least 
alarmed him ; but that he would have been en- 
tirely willing, had such been the determination 
of God, to have been cut short in a foreign land, 
without any earthly friend near him, and in 
the midst of a journey undertaken with hopes 
and prospects so pleasing to nature ; w^hich 
appeared to me no inconsiderable evidence of 
the strength of his faith. But we shall wonder 
the less at this extraordinary resignation, if 
we consider the joyful and assured prospect 
which he had of an happiness infinitely superi- 
or beyond the grave ; of which that worthy 
minister of the church of Scotland, who had an 
opportunity of conversing with him quickly 
after his return, and having the memorable sto- 
ry of his conversion from his own mouth, (as I 
have hinted above,) writes thus in his letter to 
me, dated Jan. 14, 1746-7. '' When he came 
to review his regiment at Linlithgow in sum- 
mer 1743, after having given me the w^onderful 
story as above, he concluded in words to this 
purpose : — Let me die whenever it shall please 
God, or wherever it shall be, I am sure I shall 
go to the mansions of eternal glory, and enjoy 
my God and my Redeemer in heaven forever.'' 

While he was with us at this time, he ap- 
peared deeply affected with the sad state of 
things as to religion and morals, and seemed 
u 



134 COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 

to apprehend that the rod of God was hanging 
over so sinful a nation. He observed a great 
deal of disaffection, which the enemies of the 
government had, by a variety of artifices, been 
raising in Scotland for some years ; and the 
number of Jacobites there, together with the de- 
fenceless state in which our island then was, 
with respect to the number of its forces at 
home, (of v^hich he spoke at once with great 
concern and astonishment,) led him to expect 
an invasion from France, and an attempt in fa- 
vour of the Pretender, much sooner than it hap- 
pened. I have heard him say, many years be- 
fore it came so near being accomplished, " that 
a few thousands might have a fair chance for 
marching from Edinburgh to London uncon- 
trolled, and throw the whole kingdom into an 
astonishment.'' And I have great reason to 
believe, that this was one main consideration 
which engaged him to make such haste to his 
regiment, then quartered in those parts ; as he 
imagined there was not a spot of ground where 
he might be more like to have a call to expose 
his life in the service of his country ; and per- 
haps, by appearing on a proper call early in its 
defence, be instrumental in suppressing the be- 
ginnings of most formidable mischief. How 
rightly he judged in these things, the event did 
too evidently shew. 

The evening before our last separation, as I 
knew I could not entertain the invaluable friend 
who was then my guest more agreeably, I 
preached a sermon in my own house, with some 
peculiar reference to his case and circumstances, 



COL, GARDINER'S LIFE. 135 

from those ever- memorable words, than which 
I have never felt any more powerful and more 
comfortable, Psalm xci. 14, 15, 16. " Because 
he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I 
deliver him : I will set him on high, because 
he hath known my name : He shall call upon 
me, and I will answer him : I will be with him 
in trouble ! I will deliver him, and honour 
him : With long life, (or length of days) will I 
satisfy him, and shew him my salvation.'' This 
scripture could not but lead our meditations to 
survey the character of the good man, as one 
who so knows the name of the blessed God, 
(has such a deep apprehension of the glories and 
perfections of his nature,) as determin&tely to 
set his love upon him, to make him the supreme 
object of his most ardent and constant affection. 
And it suggested the most sublime and ani- 
mating hopes to persons of such a character ; 
that their prayers shall be always acceptable to 
God ; that though they may, and must, be 
called out to their share in the troubles and ca- 
lamities of life, yet they may assure themselves 
of the divine presence in all ; which shall issue 
in their deliverance, in their exaltation, some- 
times to distinguished honour and esteem 
among men, and, it may be, in a long course of 
useful and happy years on earth at least, which 
shall undoubtedly end in seeing, to their perpetu- 
al delight, the complete salvation of God, in a 
world where they shall enjoy length of days 
forever and ever, and employ them all in ador- 
ing the great Author of their salvation and fe- 
licity. It is evident that these natural thoughts 



136 eOL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 

on such a scripture were matters of universal 
concern. Yet had I known that this was the 
last time I should ever address Colonel Gardi- 
ner, as a minister of the gospel, and had I fore- 
seen the scenes through which God was about 
to lead him, I hardly know what considerations 
I could have suggested with more peculiar pro- 
priety. The attention, elevation, and deUght 
wdth which he heard tliem, was very apparent ; 
and the pleasure which the observation of it 
gave me continues to this moment. And let 
me be permitted to digress so far, as to add, 
that this is indeed the great support of a chris- 
tian minister, under the many discouragements 
and disappointments which he meets with in 
his attempts to fix upon the profligate or the 
thoughtless part of mankind a deep sense of re- 
ligious truth ; that there is another important 
part of his work, in which he may hope to be 
more generally successful ; as by plain, artless, 
but serious discourses, the great principles of 
christian duty and hope may be nourished and 
invigorated in good men, their graces watered 
as at the root, and their souls animated both to 
persevere and improve in holiness. And when 
we are effectually performing such benevolent 
offices, so well suiting our immortal natures, to 
persons whose hearts are cemented with ours 
in the bonds of the most endearing and sacred 
friendsliip, it is too little to say it overpays the 
fatigue of our labours ; it even swallows up all 
sense of it, in the most rational and subUme 
pleasure. 



COL. GARDINER^S LIFE. 137 

An incident occurs to my mind, which hap* 
pened that evening, which at least for the odd- 
ness of it, may deserve a place in these me- 
moirs. I had then with me one Thomas Por- 
ter, a poor, but very honest and religious man, 
(now living at Hatfield, Broad-oak, in Essex J 
who is quite unacquainted with letters, so as 
not to be able to distinguibh one from another ; 
yet is master of the contents of the Bible, in so 
extraordinary a degree, that he has not only fix- 
ed an immense number of texts in his memory, 
but merely by hearing them quoted in ser- 
mons, has registered there the chapter and 
verse in which these passages are to be found ; 
this is attended with a marvellous facility in 
directing those that can read to turn to them, 
and a most unaccountable talent of fixing on 
such as suit almost every imaginable variety 
of circumstances in common life. There are 
two considerations in his case, which make it 
the more wonderful : The one, that he is a 
person of a very low genius, having besides a 
stammering which makes his speech almost 
unintelligible to strangers, so wild and awkward 
a manner of behaviour, that he is frequently 
taken for an idiot, and seems in many things to 
be indeed so : The other, that he grew up to 
manhood in a very licentious course of living, 
and an entire ignorance of divine things, so 
that all these exact impressions on his memory, 
have been made in his riper years. I thought 
it would not be disagreeable to the Colonel to 
introduce him to this odd phenomenon, which 
M 2 



138 COL. CARDINER^S LIFE. 

many hundreds of people have had a curiosity 
to examine : And among all the strange 
things I have seen in him, I never remember 
any which equalled what passed on this occa- 
sion. On hearing the Colonel's profession, 
and receiving some hints of his religious char- 
acter, he ran through a vast variety of scriptures 
beginning at the Pentateuch, and going on to 
the Revelation, relating either to the depend- 
ence, to be fixed on God for the success of 
military preparations, or to the instances and 
promises occurring there of his care of good 
men in the most imminent dangers, or to the 
encouragement to despise perils and death, 
while engaged in a good cause^ and supported 
by the views of a happy immortality. I 
believe he quoted more than twenty of these 
passages ; and I must freely own that I know 
not who could have chose them with greater 
propriety. If my memory do not deceive me, 
the last of this catalogue was that from which I 
afterwards preached on the lamented occasion 
of this great man's fall : "Be thou faithful 
unto death, and I will give thee a crown of 
life." We were all astonished at so remarka- 
ble a fact ; and I question not, but that many 
of my readers will think the memory of it 
worthy of being thus preserved. 

But to return to my main subject : The 
next day after the sermon and conversation of 
which 1 have been speaking, I took my last 
leave of my inestimable friend, after attending 
kim some p^rt of his way northward. The 



COL. gardiker's life. 139 

first stage of our journey was to the cottage of 
that poor, but very religious family, which I 
had occasion to mention above, as reheved, 
and indeed in a great measure subsisted, by 
his charity. And nothing could be more de-^ 
lightful, than to observe the condescension 
with which he conversed with these his hum- 
ble pensioners. We there put up our last 
united prayers together ; and he afterwards 
expressed, in the strongest terms I ever heard 
him use on such an occasion, the singular 
pleasure with which he had joined in them. 
Indeed, it was no small satisfaction to me to 
have an opportunity of recommending such a 
valuable friend to the divine protection and bless- 
ing, with that particular freedom and enlarge- 
ment on what was peculiar in his circumstances, 
which hardly any other situation, unless we 
had been quite alone, could so conveniently 
have admitted. We went from thence to the 
table of a person of distinction in the neigh- 
bourhood, where he had an opportunity of 
shewing in how decent and graceful a manner 
he could unite the christian and the gentleman, 
and give conversation an improving and relig* 
ions turn, without violating any of the rules 
of polite behaviour, or saying or doing any 
thing which looked at all constrained or affect-, 
ed. Here we took our last embrace, commit- 
ting each other to the care of the God of heav- 
en ; and the Colonel pursued his journey to 
the north, where he spent all the remainder of 
Ms days. 



140 COL. GARDINER^S LIFE* 

The more I reflect upon this appointment of 
Providence, the more 1 discern of the beauty 
and wisdom of it ; not only as it led directly 
to that glorious period of life with which God 
had determined to honour him, and in which, 
I think, it becomes all his friends to rejoice, 
but also, as the retirement on which he entered 
could not but have a happy tendency to favour 
his more immediate and complete preparation 
for so speedy a remove ; to which we may add, 
that it must probably have a very powerful in- 
fluence to promote the interests of religion (in- 
comparably the greatest of all interests) among 
the members of his own family ; who must 
surely edify much by such daily lessons as they 
received from his lips, when they saw them il- 
lustrated and enforced by so admirable an ex- 
ample, and this for two complete years. It is 
the more remarkable, as I cannot find from the 
memoirs of his Hfe in my hands, that he had 
ever been so long at home since he had a fam- 
ily, or indeed from his childhood, ever so long 
at a time in any one place. 

With how clear a lustre his lamp shone, and 
with what holy vigour his loins were girded up 
ill the service of his God, in these his latter 
days, I learn in part from the letters of several 
excellent persons in the ministry, or in secular 
life, with whom I have since con\ ersed or cor- 
responded. And in his many letters, dated 
from Bai^kton during this period, I have still 
farther evidence, how happy he was, amidst 
those infirmities of body which his tenderness 
for me would seldom allow him to mention ; 



COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 141 

ibr it appears from them, what a daily inter- 
course he kept up with Heaven, and what de- 
lightful communion with God crowned his at- 
tendance on pubUc ordinances, and his sweet 
hours of devout retirement. He mentions his 
sacramental opportunities with peculiar relish, 
crying out as in a holy rapture, in reference to 
one and another of them, " Oh how gracious a 
Master do we serve ! how pleasant is his ser- 
vice ! how rich the entertainment of his love ! 
yet, oh how poor and cold are our services P' 
But I will not multiply quotations of this sort, 
after those I have given above, which may be 
a sufficient specimen of many more in the same 
strain. This hint may suffice to shew, that 
the same ardour of soul held out in a great 
measure to the last ; and indeed it seems, that 
towards the close of life, like the flame of a 
lamp almost expiring, it sometimes exerted an 
unusual blaze. 

He spent much of his time at Bankton in re- 
ligious solitude : and one most intimately con- 
versant with him assures me, that the traces of 
that delightful converse with God which he enjoy 
ed in it might easily be discerned in that solemn, 
yet cheerful countenance, with which he often 
came out of his closet. Yet his exercises there 
must sometimes have been very mournful, con- 
sidering the melancholy views which he had 
of the state of our public affiiirs. " I should be 
glad,"^says he, (in a letter which he sent me, 
about the close of the year 1743,) '' to hear 
what wise and good people among you think of 
the present circumstances of things. For m y 



142 COL. GARDINER'S LIFE* 

own part, though I thank God I fear nothing 
for myself, my apprehensions for the public are 
very gloomy, considering the deplorable preva- 
lency of almost all kinds of wickedness amongst 
us ; the natural consequence of the contempt of 
the gospel. I am daily offering my prayers to 
God for this sinful land of ours, over which his 
judgments seem to be gathering ; and my 
strength is sometimes so exhausted with those 
strong cries and tears, which I pour out before 
God on this occasion, that I am hardly able to 
stand when I arise from my knees.'' Ifw^e 
have many remaining to stand in the breach 
with equal fervency, I hope, crying as our pro- 
vocations are, God will still be entreated for us, 
and save us. 

Most of the other letters I had the pleasure of 
receiving from him after our last separation, are 
either filled, like those of former years, with 
tender expressions of affectionate solicitude for 
my domestic comfort and public usefulness, or 
relate to the writings I published during this 
time, or to the affairs of his eldest son, then un- 
der my care. But these are things which are 
hv no means of a nature to be communicated 
here. It is enough to remark in the general, 
that the christian was still mingled with all the 
care of the friend and the parent. 

But I think it incumbent upon me to observe, 
that during this time, and for some preceding 
years, his attrition, ever wakeful to such con- 
cerns, was much engaged by some religious ap- 
pearances, vvhich happened about this time both 
in England and Scotland ; of which some may 



COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 143 

be curious to know his sentiments. He com- 
municated them to me with the most unreserved 
freedom ; and I cannot apprehend myself under 
any engagements to conceal them, as I am per- 
suaded that it will be no prejudice to his memo- 
ry that they should be publicly known. 

It was from Colonel Gardiner's pen that I re- 
ceived the first notice of that ever memorable 
scene which was opened at Kilsyth, under the 
ministry of the Rev. Mr. M'CuUoch, in the 
month of February, 1741-2. He communicated 
to me the copy of two letters from that eminent- 
ly favoured servant of God, giving an account 
of that extraordinary success which had within 
a few days accompanied his preaching ; when, 
as I remember, in a little more than a fortnight, 
a hundred and thirty souls, who had before con- 
tinued in a long insensibility under the faithful 
preaching of the gospel, were awakened on a 
sudden to attend to it, as if it had been a new 
revelation brought down from heaven, and at- 
tested by as astonishing miracles as ever were 
wrought by Peter or Paul ; though they heard 
it only from a person under whose ministry they 
had sat for several years. Struck with a power 
and majesty in the word of God, which they 
had never felt before, they crowded his house 
night and day, making their applications to him 
for spiritual direction and assistance, with an 
earnestness and solicitude, which floods of tears 
and cries, that swallowed up their own words 
and his, could not sufficiently express. The 
Colonel mentioned this at first to me, ^' as 
matter of eternal praise, which he knew would 



144 eOL, GARDINER'S LIFE. - 

rejoice my very soul : And when he saw it 
spread in the neighbouring parts, and observ- 
ed the glorious reformation which it produced 
in the lives of great multitudes, and the abiding 
fruits of it for succeeding months and years, it 
increased and confirmed his joy. But the facts 
relating to this matter have been laid before 
the world in so authentic a manner, and the 
agency of divine grace in them has been so ra- 
tionally vindicated, and so pathetically repre- 
sented, in what the reverend and judicious 
Mr. Webster has written upon that subject, 
that it is altogether superfluous for me to add 
any thing farther than my hearty prayers, that the 
work may be as extensive as it was apparently 
glorious and divine. 

It was with great pleasure that he received 
any intelligence of a Hke kind from England, 
whether the clergy of the established church or 
dissenting ministers, whether our own country- 
men or foreigners, were the instruments of it. 
And whatever weaknesses or errors might 
mingle themselves with valuable qualities in 
such as w ere active in such a work, he appear- 
ed to love and honour them in proportion to 
the degree he saw reason to believe their hearts 
were devoted to the service of Christ, and 
their attempts owned and succeeded by him. 
I remember, that mentioning one of these gen- 
tlemen who had been remarkably successful 
in his niinistry, and seemed to have met with 
some verj unkind usage, he says, '' I had 
rather be that despised persecuted man, to be 
an instrument in the hand of the Spirit, in con- 



COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 145 

verting so many souls, and building up so many 
in their holy faith, than I would to be emperor 
of the whole world/' Yet this steady and judi- 
cious christian, (for such he most assuredly 
was,) at the same time that he esteemed a man 
for his good intention and his worthy qualities, 
did not suffer himself to be hurried away into 
all the singularity of his sentiments, or to ad- 
mire his imprudences or excesses. On the 
contrary, he saw and lamented that artifice 
which the great father of fraud has so long and 
so successfully been practising ; who, like the 
enemies of Israel, when he cannot entirely pre- 
vent the building of God's temple, does, as it 
were, offer his assistance to carry on the work, 
that he may thereby get the most effectual op- 
portunities of obstructing it. The Colonel 
often expressed his astonishment at the wide 
extremes into which some, whom, on the 
whole, he thought very good men, were 
permitted to run in many doctrinal and specu- 
lative points ; and discerned how evidently it 
appeared from hence, that w^e cannot argue the 
truth of any doctrine from the success of the 
preacher ; since this would be a kind of de- 
monstration, (if I may be allowed the expres- 
sion,) which might equally prove both parts of 
a contradiction. Yet when he observed, that 
a high regard to the atonement and righteous- 
ness of Christ, and to the free grace of God in 
him, exerted by the operation of the Divine 
Spirit, was generally common to all who had 
been peculiarly successful in the conversion 



146 COL, GARDINER'S LIFE. 

and reformation of men, (how widely soever 
their judgments might differ in other points, 
and how warmly soever they might oppose 
each other in consequence of that diversity ;) 
it tended greatly to confirm his faith in these 
principles, as well as to open his heart in love 
to all of every denomination who maintained 
an affectionate regard to them. And though 
what he remarked as to the conduct and suc- 
cess of ministers of the most opposite strains of 
preaching, confirmed him in these sentiments, 
yet he always esteemed and loved virtuous and 
benevolent men, even where he thought them 
most mistaken in the notions they formed of 
religion, or in the methods by which they at- 
tempted to serve it. 

While I thus represent what all who knew 
him must soon have observed of Colonel Gar- 
diner's affectionate regard to these peculiar 
doctrines of our holy religion, it is necessary 
that I should also inform my reader, that it 
was not his judgment that the attention of 
ministers or their hearers should be wholly en- 
grossed by these, excellent as they are ; but 
that all the parts of the scheme of truth and 
duty should be regarded in their due connec- 
tion and proportion. Far from that distemper- 
ed taste, which can bear nothing but cordials, 
it was his deliberate judgment that the law 
should be preached, as well as the gospel ; 
and hardly any thing gave him greater offence 
than the irreverent manner in which some, 
who have been ignorantly extolled as the most 
;^ealous evangelical preachers, have sometimes 



COL. Gardiner's life. 147 

been tempted to speak of the former ; much 
indeed to the scandal of all consistent and judi- 
cious christians. He delighted to be instruct- 
ed in his duty, and to hear much of the inward 
exercises of the spiritual and divine life. 
And he always wished, so far as I could ob- 
serve, to have these topics treated in a rational 
as well as a spiritual manner, with solidity and 
order of thought, with perspicuity and weight 
of expression ; as well knowing that religion 
is a most reasonable service ; that God has not 
chosen idiots or lunatics as the instruments, or 
nonsense as the means of building up his 
church; and that, though the charge of enthu- 
siasm is often fixed on Christianity and its min- 
isters, in a wild, undeserved, and indeed, (on 
the whole) enthusiastical manner, by some of 
the loudest or most solemn pretenders to rea- 
son ; yet there is really such a thing as enthu- 
siasm, against which it becomes the true 
friends of revelation to be diligently on 
their guard, lest Christianity, instead of being 
exalted, should be greatly corrupted' and de- 
based, and all manner of absurdity, both in doc- 
trine and practice, introduced by methods, 
which, like persecution, throw truth and false- 
hood on a level, and render the grossest er- 
rors at once more plausible and more incura- 
ble. He had too much candour and equity to 
fix general charges of this nature ; but he was 
really, and I think not' vainly, apprehensive, 
that the emissaries and agents of the most cor- 
rupt church that ever dishonoured the chris- 
tian name, (by which, it will easily be under- 



148 COL, GARDINER'S LIFE. 

Stood I mean that of Rome,) might very possi- 
bly insinuate themselves into societies, to which 
they could not otherwise have access, and 
make their advantage of that total resignation 
of the understanding, and contempt of reason 
and learning, which nothing but ignorance, 
delirium or knavery can dictate, to legd men 
blindfold whither it pleased, till it set them 
down at the foot of an altar, where transubstan- 
tiation itself is consecrated. 

I know not where I can more properly m- 
troduce another part of the Colonel's character, 
which, obvious as it was, I have not yet 
touched upon ; 1 mean his tenderness to those 
who v/ere under any spiritual distress, wherein 
he was indeed an example to ministers, in a 
duty more peculiarly theirs. I have seen 
many amiable instances of this myself, and I 
have been informed of many others ; one of 
whicli happened about the time of that awaken- 
ing in the western parts of Scotland, which I 
touched upon above, when the Rev. Mr. 
M'Laurin of Glasgow found occasion to wit- 
ness to the great propriety, judgment, and fe- 
licity of manner with which he addressed 
spiritual consolation to an afflicted soul, who 
applied to the professor at a time when he had 
not an opportunity immediately to give audi- 
ence to *he case. And, indeed, as long ago as 
the year 1726, I find him writing to a friend in 
a strain of tenderness in this regard, which 
might well have become the most affectionate 
and experienced pastor. He there congratu- 
lates him on son^e religious enjoyments lately 



COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 149 

received, (in part, it seems, by his means,) 
when among others he has this modest expres* 
sion, *' If I have been made any way the 
means of doing you good, give the whole glo- 
ry to God, for he has been willing to shew 
that the power was entirely of himself, since he 
has been pleased to make use of so weak an 
instrument.'' In the same letter he admonish- 
es his friend, that he should not be too much 
surprised, if after having been, as he expresses 
it, upon the mount, he should be brought into 
the valley again ; and reminds him that ** we 
live by faith, and not by sensible assurance ;'^ 
representing, that there are some such full com- 
munications from God as seem almost to 
swallow up the actings of faith, from whence 
they take their rise : *' Whereas, when a chris- 
tian, who walks in darkness, and sees no light, 
will yet hang, as it were, on the report of an 
absent Jesus, and," as one expresses it, in al- 
lusion to the story of Jacob and Joseph, *^ can 
put himself as on the chariot of the promises, 
to be borne on to him, whom now he sees not ; 
there may be sublimer and more acceptable 
actings of a pure and stfon.s: faith, than in mo- 
ments which afford the soul a much more rap- 
turous delight." This is the substance of 
what he says in the excellent letter. Some of 
the phrases made use of might not perhaps be 
intelligible to several of my readers, for which 
reason I do not exactly transcribe them all ; 
but this is plainly and fully his meaning, and 
most of the words are his own. The senti- 
N 2 



150 COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 

ment is surely very just and important ; and 
happy would it be for many excellent persons, 
who, through wrong notions of the nature of 
faith, (which was never more misrepresented 
than novv' amoug some,) are perplexing them* 
selves with most groundless doubts and scru- 
ples, if it were more generally understood, ad- 
mitted and considered. 

An endeared friend, who was most inti^ 
mately conversant with the Colonel during the 
two last years of his life, has favoured me with 
an account of some little circumstances relating 
to him, which I esteem as precious fragments, 
by which the consistent tenor of his character 
may be farther illustrated. I shall therefore 
insert them here, without being very solicitous 
as to the order in which they are introduced. 

He perceived himself evidently in a very de- 
clining state from his first arrival in Britain, 
and seemed to entertain a fixed apprehension 
that he should continue but a little while long- 
er in life. " He expected death," says my 
good correspondent, '* and was delighted with 
the prospect," which did not grow less amia- 
ble by a nearer approach. The word of God, 
with which he had as intimate an acquaintance 
as most men I ever knew, and on which, espe- 
cially on the New Testament, I have heard him 
make many very judicious and accurate re- 
marks, was still his daily study ; and it fur- 
nished him with matter of frequent conversation, 
much to the edification and comfort of those 
that were about him. It was recollected, that 
among other passages, he had lately spoken of 



COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. l5l 

the following i . iving made a deep impression 
on his mind : •' My soul, wait thou only upon 
God !" He would repeat it again and again, 
oiily^ only, only ! — so plainly did he see, and so 
deeply did he feel, the vanity of creature-confi- 
dences arid expectations. With the strongest 
attestation would he often mention those words 
in Isaiah, as verified by long experience : 
^' Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose 
mind is stayed on thee, because he trusteth in 
thee.'' And with peculiar satisfaction would 
he utter these heroic words in Habakkuk, 
which he found armour of proof against every 
fear and every contingency : ^' Though the fig- 
tree shall not blossom, neither shall fruit be in 
the vines ; the labour of the olive shall fail, and 
the fields shall yield no meat ; the flocks shall 
be cut olF from the fold, and there shall be no 
herd in the stalls : Yet I will rejoice in the 
Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation.'* 
The 145th psalm was also spoken of by him 
with great delight, and Dr. VVatts's version of 
it ; as well as several other of that excellent 
person's poetical composures. My friend who 
transmits to me this account adds the follow- 
ing words, which I desire to insert with the 
deepest sentiments of unfeigned humility and 
self-abasement before God, as most unworthy 
the honour of contributing in the least degree 
to the joys and graces of one so much my su- 
perior in every part of the christian character : 
*' As the joy with which good men see the 
happy fruits of their labours makes a part of the 
present reward of the servants of God and the 



152 COL, GARDINER'S LIFE, 

friends of Jesus, it must not be omitted, 
even in a letter to you, that your spiritual 
hymns were among his most delightful 
and soul-improving repasts ; particularly 
those on beholding transgressors v^ith grief, 
and Christ's message." What is added 
concerning my book of the Rise and Progress 
of Religion, and the terms in which he express- 
ed his esteem of it, I cannot suffer to pass my 
pen ; only desire most sincerely to bless God, 
that especially by the last chapters of that trea- 
tise, I had an opportunity at so great a distance 
of exhibiting some offices of christian friend- 
ship to this excellent person in the closing 
scenes of life, which it would have been my 
greatest joy to have performed in person, had 
Providence permitted me then to have been 
near him. 

The former of those hymns my correspond- 
ent mentions as having been so agreeable to 
Colonel Gardiner, I have given the reader 
above, (see page 108.) The latter, which 
is called Christ's Message, took its rise 
from Luke iv. 18. & seq. and is as follows : 

Hark ! the glad sound ! The Saviour comes> 

The Saviour promised long ! 
Let every heart prepare a throne, 

And ev'ry voice a song. 

On him the Spirit largely poured 

Exerts its sacred fire : 
Wisdom and might, and zeal and love^ 

His holy breast inspire. 



COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 153 

He comes the prisoners to release 

In Satan's bondage held : 
The gates of brass before him burst; 

The iron fetters yield. 

He comes, from thickest films of viccj 

To clear the mental ray ; 
And on the eye-balls of the blind 

To pour celestial day * 

He comes the broken heart to bind, 

The bleeding soul to cure ; 
And with the treasures of his grace 

T' enrich the humble poor. 

His silver trumpets publish loud 

The jub'lee of the Lord ; 
Our debts are all remitted now, 
Our heritage restor'd. 

Our glad hosannasj Prince of Peace, 

Thy welcome shall proclaim ; 
And heaven's eternal arches ring 

With thy beloved name. 

There is one 113^11111 more I shall beg leave to 
add, plain as it is, which Colonel Gardiner has 
been heard to mention with particular regard, 
as expressing the inmost sentiments of his 
soul ; and they were undoubtedly so, in the 
last rational moments of his expiring life. It 
is called, Christ precious to the believer ; and 
was composed to be sung after a sermon 
on 1 Pet. ii. 7. 

Jesus ! I love thy charming name, 

'Tis music to my ear : 
Fain would I sound it out so loud, 

That earth and heaven should hear. 



• This stanza is mostly borrowed from Mr. Pope* 



154 COL. GARDINER^S LUE. 

Yes, thou art precious to my soulj 

My transport, and my trust : 
Jewels to thee are gaudy toys, 

And gold is sordid dust. 

All my capacious pow'rs can wish, 

In thee most richly meet : 
Nor to my eye;s is life so deai^ 

Nor friendship half so sweet. 

Thy grace still dwells upon my heart, 
^ And sheds its fragrance there ; 

The noblest balm of all its wounds, 
The cordial of its care. 

ril speak the honours of thy name 

With my last laboring breath ; 
Then, speechless, clasp thee in my arms, 

The antidote of death. 

Those who were intimate with Colonel 
Gardiner must have observed how ready he 
was to give a devotional turn to any subject 
that occurred. And in particular, the spiritu- 
al and heavenly disposition of his soul discov- 
ered itself in the reflections and improvements 
which he .iade when reading history ; in 
which he took a great deal of pleasure, as 
persons remarkable for their knowledge of 
mankind, and observation of providence, gen- 
erally do. I have an instance of this before me, 
which, though too natural to be at all surpris- 
ing, will, I dare say, be pleasing to the devout 
mind. He had been just reading in Rollin's 
extract from Xenophon, the answer which the 
lady of Tigranes made, when all the company 



COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 155 

were extolling Cyrus, and expressing the ad- 
miration with which his appearance and beha- 
viour struck them. The question being asked 
her, What she thought of him ? she answered, 
I do not know, I did not observe him. On 
what then, said one of the company, did you 
fix your attention? On him, replied she, 
(referring to the generous speech which her 
husband had just made,) who said he would 
give a thousand lives to ransom my liberty. 
*' Oh,'' cried the Colonel, when reading it, ^'how 
ought we to fix our eyes and hearts on Him, who, 
not in offer, but in reality, gave his own pre- 
cious life to ransom us from the most dreadful 
slavery, and from eternal destruction !" But 
this is only one instance among a thousand. 
His heart was so habitually set upon divine 
things, and he had such a permanent and 
overflowing sense of the love of Christ, that he 
could not forbear connecting such reflections 
with a multitude of more distant occasions oc- 
curring in daily life, where less advanced chris- 
tians would not have thought of them : And 
thus, like our great master, he made every litde 
incident a source of devotion, and an instru- 
ment of holy zeal. 

Enfeebled as his constitution was, he was 
still intent on improving his time to some valu- 
able purposes : And when his friends expos- 
tulated with him, that he gave his body so little 
rest, he used to answer, '' It will rest long 
enough in the tomb." 



156 COL. Gardiner's life. 

The July before his death, he was persuaded 
to take a journey to Scarborough for the re- 
covery of his health ; from which he was at 
least encouraged to expect some little revival. 
After this, he had thoughts of going to Lon- 
don, and designed to have spent part of Sep- 
temper at Northampton, The expectation of 
this was mutually agreeable ; but Providence 
saw fit to disconcert the scheme. His love for 
his friends in these parts occasioned him to 
express some regret on his being commanded 
back : And I am pretty confident, from the 
manner in which he expressed himself in one 
of his last letters to me, that he had some more 
important reasons for wishing an opportunity 
of making a London journey just at that crisis, 
which, the reader will remember, was before 
the rebellion broke out. But, as Providence 
determined it otherwise, he acquiesced ; and 
I am well satisfied, that could he have distinct- 
ly foreseen the approaching event, so far as it 
concerned his own person, he would have es- 
teemed it the happiest summons he ever re- 
ceived. While he was at Scarborough, I find 
by a letter dated from thence, July 26, 1745, 
that he had been informed of the gaiety which 
so unseasonably prevailed at Edinburgh, 
where great multitudes were then spending 
their time in balls, assemblies, and other gay 
amusements, little mindful of the rod of God, 
w^hich was then hanging over them ; on which 
occasion he hath this expression: ^'I am 
greatly surprised that the people of Edinburgh 
should be employed in such foolish diversions 



COL. carbinier's LIF£. 157 

when our situation is at present more melan- 
choly than ever I saw it in my life. But there 
is one thing which I am very sure of, that com- 
forts me, viz, that it shall go well with the 
righteous, come what will." 

Quickly after his return home, the flame 
burst out, and his regiment was ordered to 
Stirling. It was in the castle there that his la- 
dy and eldest daughter enjoyed the last happy 
hours of his company ; and I think it was 
about eight or ten days before his death 
that he parted from them. A remarkable 
circumstance attended that parting, which has 
been touched upon by surviving friends in 
more than one of their letters to me. His La- 
dy was so affected when she took her last leave 
of him, that she could not forbear bursting out 
into a flood of tears, with other marks of unu- 
sual emotion. And when he asked her the 
reason, she urged the apprehension she had of 
losing such an invaluable friend, amidst the 
dangers to which he was then called out, as a 
very sufficient apology. Upon which she took 
particular notice, that whereas he had general- 
ly comforted her on such occasions, by plead- 
ing with her that remarkable hand of providence 
which had so frequently, in former instances, 
been exerted for his preservation, and that in 
the greatest extremity he said nothing of it 
now ; but only replied, in his sententious man- 
ner, " We have an eternity to spend together.'^ 

That heroic contempt of death, which had 
often discovered itself in the midst of former 



15B COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 

dangers, was manifested now in his discourse 
with several of his most intimate friends. I 
have reserved for this place one genuine ex- 
pression of it many years before, which I 
thought might be mentioned with some advan- 
tage here. In July, 1725, he had been sent to 
some place, not far from Hamilton, to quell a 
mutiny among some of our troops. I know 
not the particular occasion ; but I remember 
to have heard him mention it as so fierce a one, 
that he scarce ever apprehended himself in a 
more hazardous circumstance. Yet he quelled 
it by his presence alone, and the expostulations 
he used ; evidently putting his life into his 
hand to do it. The particulars of the story 
struck me much ; but I do not so exactly re- 
member them, as to venture to relate them 
here. I only observe, that in a letter, dated 
July 16, that year, which I have now before 
me, and which evidently refers to this event, 
he writes thus : *' I have been very busy, hur- 
ried about from place to place ; but, blessed be 
God, all is over without blood-shed. And 
pray let me ask, what made you show so 
much concern for me in your last ? Were you 
afraid I should get to heaven before you ? Or 
can any evil befal those who are followers of 
that which is good ?"^ 



* I doubt not hut this \vill remind some of my readers of 
that noble speech of Zuringlius, when (according to the usage 
of that country) attending his flock to a battle, in wliich their 
religion and liberties were all at stake, on his receiving a 
mortal wound by a bullet, of which he soon expired, while his 
friends were in all the first astonishment of grief, he bravely 
said as he was dying, ** Ecquid hoc infortunii ?'* Is this to be 



COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 15^' 

And as these were his sentiments in the vig- 
our of his days, so neither did declining years 
and the infirmities of a broken constitution on 
the one hand, nor any desires of enjoying the 
honours and profits of so high a station, or 
(what was much more to him) the converse of 
the most affectionate of wives and so many 
amiable children and friends on the other, ener- 
vate his spirits in the least : But as he had ia 
former years often expressed it to me, and sev- 
eral others, as his desire, *' that if it were the 
v/ill of God, he might have some honourable 
call to sacrifice his life in defence of religion 
and the hberties of his country ;'' so that when it 
appeared to him most probable that he might 
be called to it immediately, he met the sum- 
mons with the greatest readiness. This ap- 
pears in part from a letter which he wrote to 
the Rev. Mr. Adams of Falkirk, just as he was 
on marching from Stirling, which was only eight 
days before his death : '' The rebels,'' says he, 
" are advancing to cross the Frith : but I trust 
in the Almighty God, who doth whatsoever he 
pleases, in the armies of heaven, and among 
the inhabitants of the earth." And the same 
gentlemen tells me, that a few days after the 
date of this, he marched through Falkirk with 
his regiment : and though he was then in so 

reckoned a misfortune ? How many of our deists would have 
celebrated such a sentence, if it had come from the lips of an 
ancient Roman ? Strange, that the name of Christ should be 
so odious, that the brightest virtues of his followers should be 
despised for his sake ! but so it is ; and so our Master told us 
it would be : And our faith is in this connexion confirmed by 
those that strive most to overthrow it. 



160 COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 

languishing a state, that he needed his assist- 
ance as a secretary to write for some reinforce- 
ment, which might put it in his power to make 
a stand, (as he was very desirous to have done,) 
he expressed a most genuine and noble con- 
tempt of Ufe, when to be exposed in the de- 
fence of a worthy cause. 

These sentiments wrought in him to the last 
in the most effectual manner ; and he seemed 
for a while to have infused them into the regi- 
jnent which he commanded : For they express- 
ed such a spirit in their march from Stirling, 
that I am assured the Colonel was obliged to 
exert all his authority to prevent their making 
incursions on the rebel army, w^hich then lay 
very near them : and had it been thought pro- 
per to send him the reinforcement he request- 
ed, none can say what the consequence might 
have been : But he was ordered to march as 
fast as possible to meet Sir John Cope's forces 
at Dunbar : which he did. And that hasty 
retreat, in concurrence with the new^s w^hich 
they soon after received of the surrender of 
Edinburgh to the rebels, (either by the treach- 
ery or w^eakness of a few, in opposition to the 
judgment of by far the greater and better part 
of the inhabitants,) struck a panic into both the 
regiments of dragoons, which became visible 
in some very apparent and remarkable circum- 
stances in their behaviour, which I forbear to 
relate. This affected Colonel Gardiner so 
much, that on the Thursday before the fatal 
action at Prestonpans, he intimated to an officer 
of considerable rank and note, (from whom I 



cot. GARDINER'S LIFB^. 161 

had it by a very sure channel of conveyance,) 
that he expected the event would be as in fact 
it was. In this view, there is all imaginable 
reason to believe he had formed his resolution 
as to his own personal conduct, which was, 
*' that he would not, in case of the flight of 
those under his command, retreat with them ;" 
by which, as it seemed, he was reasonably ap- 
prehensive he might have stained the honour 
of his former services, and have given some 
occasion for the enemy to have spoken re- 
proachfully. He much rather chose, if Provi- 
dence gave him the call, to leave in his death 
an example of fidelity and bravery, which 
might very probably be (as in fact it seems to 
have been) of much greater importance to his 
country, than any other service, which in the 
few days of remaining life he could expect to 
render it. I conclude these to have been his 
views, not only from what I knew of his gener- 
al character and temper, but likewise from 
some intimations which he gave to a very wor- 
thy person from Edinburgh, who visited him 
the day before the action ; to whom he said, 
** 1 cannot influence the conduct of others, as 
I could wish, but I have one life to sacrifice to 
my country's safety, and I shall not spare it ;'' 
or words to that effect. 

1 have heard such a multitude of inconsistent 
reports of the circumstances of Colonel Gardi- 
ner's death, that I had almost despaired of be- 
ing able to give my reader any particular sat- 
isfaction concerning so interesting a scene* 
o 2 



162 COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 

But, by a happy accident, I have very lately 
had an opportunity of being exactly informed 
of the vi^hole, by that brave man, Mr. John 
Foster, his faithful servant, (and worthy of the 
honour of serving such a master,) whom I had 
seen with him at my house some years before. 
He attended him in his last hours, and gave me 
the narration at large ; \\ hich he would be rea- 
dy, if it were requisite, to attest upon oath. 
From his mouth 1 wrote it down with the ut- 
most exactness, and could easily believe, from 
the genuine and affectionate manner in which 
he related the particulars, that, according to his 
own striking expression, " his eye and his 
heart were always upon his honoured master 
during the whole time."^ 

On Friday, September 20, (the day before 
the battle which transmitted him to his immor- 
tal crow^n,) when the w^hole army was drawn 
up, I think about noon, the Colonel rode 
through all the ranks of his own regiment, ad- 
dressing them at once in the most respectful and 
animating manner, both as soldiers and as 
christians, to engage them to exert themselves 
courageously in the service of their country, 
and to neglect nothing that might have a ten- 
dency to prepare them for v^hatever event might 

* Just as I am putting' the last hand to these memoirs, 
March 2. 1746 7, I have met with a corporal in Colonel 
Lascelle's regiment, who was also an eye witness to what hap- 
pened at Prestonpans on the day of the battle, and the day 
tefore : And tlie account he has given me of some memorable 
particulars is so exactly agreeable to that which I received 
from Mr Foster, that it would much corroborate his testimo- 
ny, if there were not so many other consideratiops to reuder it 
convincing^. 



eoL. Gardiner's life. 163 

happen. They seemed much afFected with the 
address, and expressed a very ardent desire of 
attacking the enemy immediately : A desire, 
in which he and another very gallant officer of 
distinguished rank, dignity, and character, both 
for bravery and conduct, would gladly have 
gratified them, if it had been in the power of 
either. He earnestly pressed it on the com- 
manding officer, both as the soldiers were then 
in better spirits than it could be supposed they 
would be after having passed the night under 
arms ; and also, as the circumstance of making 
an attack would be some encouragement 
to them, and probably some terror to the 
enemy, who would have had the disadvantage 
of standing on their defence : A disadvantage 
with which those wild barbarians (for such 
most of them were) perhaps w ould have been 
more struck than better disciplined troops, es- 
pecially when they fought against the laws of 
their country too. He also apprehended, that 
by marching to meet them, some advantage 
might have been secured with regard to the 
ground ; with which, it is natural to imagine, 
he must have been perfectly acquainted, as it 
lay just at his own door, and he had rode over 
it so many hundred times. When I mention 
these things I do not pretend to be capable of 
judging how far this advice was on the whole 
right. A variety of circumstances, to me un- 
known, might make it otherwise. It is certain, 
however, that it was brave. But it was over- 
ruled in this respect, as it also was in the dis- 
position of the cannon, w^hich he would have 



164 COL. GARDINER'S LIFE(i 

had planted in the centre of our small army, 
rather than just before his regiment, which was 
in the right w ing ; where he was apprehensive 
that the horses, which had not been in any en- 
gagement before, might be thrown into some 
dsiorder by the discharge so very near them. 
He urged this the more, as he thought the at- 
tack of the rebels might probably be made on 
the centre of the foot, where he knew there 
were some brave men, on whose standing he 
thought under God the success of the day de- 
pended. When he found that he could not 
carry either of these points, nor some others, 
w^hich, out of regard to the common safety, 
he insisted upon with some unusual earnest- 
ness, he dropped some intimations of the con- 
sequences which he apprehended, and which 
did in fact follow ; and submitting to Provi- 
dence, spent the remainder of the day in mak- 
ing as good a disposition as circumstances 
would allow.* 

He continued all night under arms, wrapped 
up in his cloak, generally sheltered under a 
rick of barley which happened to be in the 

* Several of these circumstances have since been confirmed 
by the concurrent testimony of another very credible person, 
Mr. Robert Douglas (now a surgeon in the navy,) who was a 
volvmteer at Edinburgh just before the rebels entered the 
place, who saw Colonel Gardiner come from Haddington to 
the field of battle the day before the action, in a chaise, being 
(as from that circumstance he supposed) in so weak a state 
that he could not well endure the fatigue of riding on horse- 
back. He observed Colonel Gardiner in discourse with sev- 
eral officers the evening before the engagement ; at which 
time, it was afterwards reported, he gave his advice to attack 
the rebels ; and when it was over-ruled, he afterwards saw 
the Colonel walk by himself in a very pensive manner. 



COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 165 

field. About three in the morning, he called 
his domestic servants to him, of which there 
were four in waiting. He dismissed three of 
them, with most affectionate christian advice, 
and such solemn charges relating to the per- 
formance of their duty and the care of their 
souls, as seemed plainly to intimate that he ap- 
prehended it at least very probable he was 
taking his last farewell of them. There is great 
reason to 'believe that he spent the little re- 
mainder of the time, which could not be much 
above an hour, in those devout exercises of 
soul, which had so long been habitual to him, 
and to which so many circumstances did then 
concur to call him. The army was alarmed 
by break of day, by the noise of the rebels ap- 
proach, and the attack was made before sun- 
rise, yet when it was light enough to discern 
what passed. As soon as the enemy came 
within gun-shot, they made a furious fire ; and 
it is said that the dragoons, which constituted 
the left wing, immediately fled. The Colonel, 
at the beginning of the onset, which in the 
whole lasted but a few minutes, received a 
wound by a bullet in his left breast, which 
made him give a sudden spring in his saddle ; 
upon which his servant, who had led the horse, 
would have persuaded him to retreat ; but he 
said it was only a Vvound in the flesh, and 
fought on, though he presently after received a 
shot in his right thigh. In the mean time, it 
was discerned that some of the enemies fell by 
him, and particularly one man who had made 
him a treacherous visit but a few days before,^ 



166 COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 

with great professions of zeal for the present 
establishment. 

Events of this kind pass in less tinme than 
the description of them can be written, or than 
it can be read. The Colonel was for a few 
moments supported by his men, and particular. 
ly by that worthy person Lieutenant Colonel 
Whitney, who was shot through the arm here, 
and a few months after fell nobly in the battle 
of Falkirk, and by Lieutenant West, a man of 
distinguished bravery, as also by about fifteen 
dragoons, who stood by him to the last. But 
after a faint fire, the regiment in general was 
seized with a panic ; and though their Colo- 
nel and some other gallant officers did what 
they could to rally them once or twice, they at 
last took a precipitate flight : And, just in the 
moment when Colonel Gardiner seemed to be 
making a pause, to deliberate what duty requir- 
ed him to do in such a circumstance, an acci- 
dent happened, which must, I think, in the 
judgment of every worthy and generous man, 
be allowed a sufficient apology for expos- 
ing his life to so great hazard, when his regi- 
ment had left him. ^ He saw a party of the 

* The Colonel, who was well acquainted with military his- 
tory, might possibly remember, that in the battle at Blenheim, 
the illustrious Prince Eugene, when the horse of the wing he 
commanded had run away thrice, charged at the head of the 
foot, and thereby greatly contributed to the glorious success of 
the day. At least such an example may conduce to vindicate 
that noble ardour, which, amidst all the applauses of his coun- 
try, sonie have been so cool and so critical as to blame. For 
my own part, I thank God, that I am not called to apologize 
for his following his troops in their flight ; wliich I 
fear would have been a much harder task ; and which, dear as 
he was to me, would have grieved me much more than his 
4eatb; VfiXh these berolo circumstances attending it. 



COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 167 

Foot, who were then bravely fighting near him, 
and whom he v;as ordered to support, had no 
officer to head them ; upon which he said ea- 
gerly, in the hearing of the person from whom I 
had this account, ** Those brave fellows would 
be cut to pieces for want of a commander ; '' or 
words to that effect, which, while he was 
speaking, he rode up to them, and cried out 
aloud, *' Fire on, my lads, and fear nothing.'* 
But just as the words were out of his mouth, 
an Highlander advanced towards him with a 
scythe fastened to a long pole, with which he 
gave him such a deep wound on his right arm, 
that his sword dropped out of his hand ; and 
at the same time several others coming about 
him, while he was thus dreadfully entangled 
with that cruel weapon, he was dragged off 
from his horse. The moment he fell, another 
Highlander, who, if the king's evidence at 
Carlisle may be credited, (as I know not why 
they should not, though the unhappy creature 
died denying it,) was one Macnaught, who 
was executed about a year after, gave him a 
stroke, either with a broad sword or a Locha- 
ber-axe, (for my informant could not exactly 
distinguish,) on the hinder part of his head, 
which was the mortal blow. All that his 
faithful attendant saw farther at this time was, 
that as his hat was fallen off, he took it in his 
left hand, and waved it as a signal to him to re- 
treat ; and added, what were the last words he 
ever heard him speak, *' Take care of your- 
self:" Upon which the servant retired. 



168 COL. garbiner's life. 

It was reported at Edinburgh on the day 
of the battle, bv what seemed a considerable 
authority, that as the Colonel lay in his wounds, 
he said to a chief of the opposite side, *' You 
are fighting for an earthly crown ; I am going 
to receive an heavenly one :'' or something to 
that purpose. When I preached the sermon, 
long since printed, on occasion of his death, I 
had great reason to believe that this report was 
true, though, before the publication of it, I began 
to be in doubt. And, on the whole, after the 
most accurate inquiry I could possibly make 
at this distance, 1 cannot get any convincing 
evidence of it. Yet I must here observe, that 
it does not appear impossible that something 
of this kind might indeed be uttered by him, 
as his servant testifies that he spoke to him 
after receiving that fatal blow, which would 
seem most likely to have taken away the pow- 
er of speech, and as it is certain he lived several 
hours after he fell. If, therefore, any thing of 
this kind did happen, it must have been just 
about this instant. But as to the story of his 
being taken prisoner and carried to the pretend- 
ed Prince, (who by the way afterwards rode 
his horse, and entered upon it into Derby,) 
with several other circumstances which were 
grafted upon that interview, there is the most 
undoubted evidence of its falsehood : For his 
attendant, mentioned above, assures me, that 
he himself immediately fled to a mill, at 
the distance of about two miles from the spot of 
ground on which the Colonel fell, where he 
changed his dress, and, disguised like a miller's 



COL, GARDINER^S LIFE* 16^ 

servant, returned with a cart as soon as possi- 
ble ; which yet was not till near two hours 
after the engagement. The hurry of the action 
was then pretty well over, and he found his 
much honoured master, not only plundered of 
his watch, and other things of value, but also 
stripped of his upper garments and boots, yet 
still breathing ; and adds, that though he 
were not capable of speech, yet on taking him 
up, he opened his eyes ; which makes it 
something questionable whether he were alto- 
gether insensible. In this condition, and in 
this manner, he conveyed him to the church of 
Tranent, from whence he was immediately 
taken into the minister's house, and laid in bed, 
w^here he continued breathing, and frequently 
groaning, until about eleven in the forenoon, 
when he took his final leave of pain and sorrow, 
and undoubtedly rose to those distinguished 
glories which are reserved for those who have 
been so eminently and remarkably faithful unto 
death. 

From the moment in which he fell it was no 
longer a battle, but a rout and carnage. The 
cruelties which the rebels (as it is generally 
said, vuider the command of Lord Elcho) 
inflicted on some of the king's troops, after 
they had asked quarter, were dreadfully legible 
on the countenances of many who survived it. 
They entered Colonel Gardiner's house before 
he was carried off from the field ; and, notwith- 
standing the strict orders which the unhappy 
Duke of Perth, (whose conduct is said to have 



170 COL. Gardiner's life. 

been very humane in many instances) gave to 
the contrary, every thing of value was plunder- 
ed, to the very curtains of the beds, and hang- 
ings of the rooms. His papers were all thrown 
into the wildest disorder, and his house made 
an hospital for the reception of those who were 
wounded in the action. 

Such was the close of a life which had been 
so zealously devoted to God, and filled up with 
so many honourable services. This was the 
death of him who had been so highly favoured 
by God, in the method by which he was 
brought back to him after so long and so great 
an estrangement, and in the progress of so 
many years, during which (in the expresvsive 
phrase of the most ancient of writers) he had 
walked with him ; — to fall as God threatened the 
people of his wrath that they should do, " with 
tumult, with shouting, and with the sound of the 
trumpet," Amos ii. 2. Several other very 
w orthy, and some of them very eminent persons, 
shared the same fate, either now in the battle ojF 
Prestonpans, or quickly after in that of Fal- 
kirk r^ Providence, no doubt, permitting it, 

* Of these none were more memorable than those lUustrioiiS 
brothers, Sir Robert Munro and Dr. Munro, whose tragical, 
but glorious fate, was also shared quickly after by a third hero 
of the family. Captain Munro of Culcairn, brother to Sir Rob- 
ert and the Doctor. I thought of adding some account of these 
martyrs in the cause of liberty and religion in this place ; but 
having had the pleasure of receiving from some very credible 
and worthy persons, to whom they were well knov/n, a larger 
account of them and their family, tlian can conveniently be 
comprehended in a note, I choose to make it a distinct article 
in the Appendix, No. Ill, by which I question not but I shall 
oblige every intelligent and generous reader ; and I think my- 
self very happy to have it in my power to doit. 



COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 171 

to establish our faith in the rewards of an 
invisible world, as well as to teach us, to cease 
from man, and fix our dependance on an 
almighty arm. 

The remains of this christian hero (as I be- 
lieve every reader is now convinced he may 
justly be called) were interred the Tuesday 
following, September 24, at the parish church 
at Tranent ; w^here he had usually attended 
divine service with great solemnity. His ob- 
sequies were honoured with the presence of 
some persons of distinction, who were not 
aft^aid of paying that last piece of respect to his 
memory, though the country was then in the 
hands of the enemy. But indeed there was no 
great hazard in this ; for his character was so 
well known, that even they themselves spoke 
honourably of him, and seemed to join with 
his friends in lamenting the fall of so brave and 
so worthy a man. 

The remotest posterity will remember for 
whom the honour of subduing this unnatural 
and pernicious rebellion was reserved : and it 
will endear the person of the illustrious Duke 
of Cumberland, to all but the open and secret 
abettors of it in the present age, and consecrate 
his name to immortal honours among all the 
friends of religion and liberty who shall arise 
after us. And, I dare say, it will not be im- 
agined that I at all derogate from his glory, in 
suggesting, that the memory of that valiant 
and excellent person, whose memoirs I am now 
concluding, may in some measure have contri- 
buted to that signal and complete victory with 



172 COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 

which God was pleased to crown the arms of 
his Royal Highness : For the force of such an 
example is very animating ; and a painful con- 
sciousness of having deserted such a command- 
er in such extremity, must at least awaken, 
where there was any spark of generosity, an 
earnest desire to avenge his death on those 
who had sacrificed his blood, and that of so 
many other excellent persons, to the views of 
their ambition, rapine, or bigotry. 

The reflections I have made in my funeral 
sermon on my honoured friend, and in the 
dedication of it to his worthy and most afilicted 
Lady, supersede many things which might 
otherwise have properly been added here. I 
conclude, therefore, with humbly acknowledg- 
ing the wisdom and goodness of that awful 
providence, which drew so thick a gloom 
around him in the last hours of his life, that 
the lustre of his virtues might dart through it 
with a more vivid and observable ray. It is 
abundant matter of thankfulness, that so signal 
a monument of grace, and ornament of the 
christian profession, was raised in our age and 
country, and spared for so many honourable 
and useful years. Nor can all the tenderness 
of the most affectionate friendship, while its 
sorrows bleed afresh in the view of so tragical 
a scene, prevent my adoring the gracious ap- 
pointment of the great Lord of all events, that 
when the day in which he must have expired 
without an enemy appeared so very near, the 
last ebb of his generous blood should be pour- 
ed out, as a kind of sacred libation, to the 



COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 173 

liberties of his country, and the honour of his 
God ! that all the other virtues of his character, 
embalmed as it were by that precious stream, 
might diffuse around a more extensive fragran- 
cy, and be transmitted to the most remote pos- 
terity, with that peculiar charm, which they 
cannot but derive from their connection with 
so gallant a fall : An event (as that blessed 
apostle, of whose spirit he so deeply drank, 
has expressed it,) *' according to his earnest 
expectation and his hope, that in him Christ 
might be glorified in all things, whether by 
his life or by his death.'' 



? 2 



APPENDIX. 



^::^::« 



NO. I. 
BELATING TO THE COLONEL'S PERSON. 

IN the midst of so many more important 
articles, I had really forgot to say any thing of 
the person of Colonel Gardiner, of which nev- 
ertheless it may be proper here to add a word 
or two. It was, as I am informed, in younger 
life, remarkably graceful and amiable ; and I 
can easily believe ii, from what I knew him to 
be when our acquaintance began, though he was 
then turned of fifty, and had gone through so 
many fatigues as well as dangers, which could 
not but leave some traces on his countenance. 
He was tall, " (I suppose something more than 
six feet,) well proportioned, and strongly 
built ; his eyes of a dark grey, and not very 
large ; his forehead pretty high ; his nose of a 
length and height no way remarkable, but very 
well suited to his other features ; his cheeks 
not very prominent; his mouth moderately 
large, and his chin rather a little inclining 
(when I knew him) to be peaked. He had a 
strong voice and lively accent, with an air very 
intrepid, yet attempered with much gentleness : 
And there was something in his manner of 
address most perfectly easy and obliging, 
which was in a great measure the result of the 



176 APPENDIX TO 

great candour and benevolence of his natural 
temper ; and which, no doubt, was much im- 
proved by the deep humiUty which divine 
grace had wrought into his heart, as well as his 
having been accustomed from his early youth 
to the company of persons of distinguished 
rank and polite behaviour. 

The picture of him, which was prefixed to the 
first edition of these memoirs, was taken from 
an original done by Van Deest, (a Dutchman 
brought into Scotland by General Wade,) in 
the year 1727, which was the 40th of his age, 
and is said to have been very much like him 
then, though far from being an exact resem- 
blance of what he was when I had the happi- 
ness of being acquainted with him. Perhaps 
he would have appeared to the greatest advan- 
tage of all, could he have been exactly drawn 
on horseback ; as many very good judges, and 
among the rest the celebrated Mons, Faubert 
himself, have spoken of him as one of the com- 
pletest horsemen that has ever been known : 
^And there was indeed something so singular- 
'ly graceful in his appearance in that attitude, 
that it was sufficient (as what is very eminent 
in its kind generally is) to strike an eye not 
formed on any critical rules. 

NO. II. 

POETICAL PIECES ON THE DEATH OF 
COLOiNEL GARDllSER. 

SO animati g a subject as the death of such 
a man, in such circumstances, has occasioned 



COL. GARDINER'S LIFJE. 177 

a great deal of poetry. Some of this has al- 
ready been published ; especially one large 
composition, said to be done by a worthy cler- 
gyman in Lincolnshire, in which there are 
many excellent lines and noble sentiments : 
But I rather choose to refer to the piece itself, 
than to insert any extracts from it here. It may 
be more expedient to oblige my reader with 
the following copy of verses, and an elegiac 
poem, composed by two of my valuable 
friends, whose names are annexed. I could 
not presume to attempt any thing of this kind 
myself ; because I knew that nothing I was 
capable of writing could properly express my 
sense of his worth, or describe the tenderness 
of my friendship ; the sentiments of which 
will (as I assuredly believe) mingle themselves 
with the last ideas which pass through my 
mind in this world, and perhaps with some of 
the first which may open upon it in that Vv^hich 
is to come. 

VERSES ON THE DEATH OF COLONEL 
GARDINER. 

BY THE REV. MR. BENJAMIN SOWDEN* 

Quis Desiderio sit P^idor^ mit Modiis^ 
Tarn chari Capitis f HoR. 

COULD piety perpetuate buman breath. 
Or shield one mortal from tiie shafts of death, 
Thou ne'er, illustrious man I thou ne'er hadst been 
A palid corpse on Preston's fatal plain : 
Or could her hand, though impotent to save 
Consummate worth, redeem it from the grave^ 
Soon would thy urn resign its sacred trust, 
And recent life re-^nimatc thy dust. 



178 APPENDIX TO 

But vain the wish. — The savage hand of war-^ 
O how shall words the mournful tale declare ! 
Too soon the news afflicted friendship hears. 
Too soon, alas ! confirm'd her boding fears. 

Struck with the sound, unconscious of redress, 
She felt thy wounds, and wept severe distress. 
Awhile dissolved in truceless grief she lay, 
Which left thee to relentless rage a prey. 

At length kind Fame suspends our heaving sighs, 
And wipes the sorrows from our flowing eyes ; 
Gives us to know, thine exit well supply'd, 
Those blooming laurels victory deny'd. 
When thy great soul suppress'd each timid moau, 
And soar'd triumphant in a dying groan, 
Thy fall, which rais'd, now calms each wild com- 
plaint, 
Thy fall, which join'd the hero to the saint. 

As o'er th* expiring lamp the quivering flame 
Collects its lustre in a brighter gleam. 
Thy virtues, glimm'ring on the verge of night, 
Through the dim shade diff*us'd celestial light : 
A radiance death or time can ne'er destroy, 
Th' auspicious omen of eternal joy. 

Hence every unavailing grief! No more 
As hapless thy removal we deplore. 
Thy gushing veins, in every drop they bleed, 
Of patriot warriors shed the fruitful seed. 
Soon shall the ripen'd harvest rise in arms, 
To crush rebellion's insolent alarms. 

While prosp'rous moments sooth'd through life 
his way, 
Conceal'd from public view the hero lay : 
But when affliction clouded his decline. 
It not eclips'd, but made his honours shine : 
Gave them to beam conspicuous from the gloom, 
And plant unfading trophies round his tomb. 



COL. GARDINER'S LIF£. 179 

So Stars are lost amidst the blaze of day ; 
But when the sun withdraws his golden ray^ 
Refulgent thro* th' etherial arch they roll, 
And gild the wide expanse from pole to pole. 

AN ELEGY 

• N THE DEATH OF THE TRULY PIOUS, AND BRAVE 
COLONEL JAMES aARDINER, WHO WAS SLAIN BY 
THE REBEL FORCES, SEPTEMBER 21, 1745, IN THE 
FATAL ACTION AT PRESTONPANS. 

BY THE REV. MR. THOMAS GIBSONS. 

Nam^ dum duelli Icetior^ hostica 
Opprobriorum mumura vindice 

Excusat enscy barbararum 
Immortuus aggeribus cohortum : 
Prcesecta tandem colla volubili 
Lapsu reclinat, Sedfamula prope 

Decusque^ prcesignisque virtuSj 

Semianimem subiere dextra : 
Mox^ expiditis corpore manibus^ 
Deprceliatrix gloria siderum 

Occurrity et fulvo reclinem 

Ire jubet super astra curru» CASlMili. 

COME, melancholy, from the stormy cave 
The scoop of time for thee has made, 
Under the broad cliff's shade, 
Upon the naked shore, 
Where warring tempests roar 
In concert with the hoarse resounding wave : 
Come, but with solemn gait, 
With trickling eyes, 
And heavy sighs. 
And all the 'scutcheon'd pomp of fate : 
And bring with thee the cypress, and the yew. 
All bath'd and drooping with the mortal dew, 
To this sequester'd bow'r : 
And let the midnight hour 
Be hung in deeper glooms by thee. 
And bid each gay idea flee : 



180 APPENDIX TO 

While all the baleful images of \vo> 
That haunt the marble bust, 
Or hover round sepulcher'd dust, 
With conscious horrors all my 3oul overflow. 

For *tis no vulgar death 

Urania means to mourn ; 

But in a doleful strain 

She bids the harp complain, 

And hangs the fun'ral w^reath 

On Gard'ner's awful urn. 

Gard'ner, what various fame 
Forever crowns thy name ? 
Nor is it possible to say, 
Or if the saint's, or hero's ray 
Shone brightest in that blended blaze 
That form'd thine ample round of praise* 
Like Moses on the sacred hill, 
How hast thou stood with pleading eyes, 
Outstretching hands, and fervent cries, 
Unwearied wrestler with the skies ! 
Till Heaven, responsive to thy will. 
Would all thy largest wishes fill ; 
Till the bright-brandish'd bolt aside was 
thrown, 
And the full blessing stream'd in silver murmurs 
down. 
Nor less a Joshua, than a Moses, thou ; 
For oft in Liberty's high strife 
Hast thou expos'd thy gen'rous life. 
And with impatient ardours on thy brow, 
Rush'd foremost in the horrid van of fight, 
Driving the troops of tyranny to flight. 
Unshaken in the noble cause, 
To pluck her bloody fangs, and break her iron 
jaws. 

When Anna sent her chosen chief, 

Victorious Marlborough, 
To Europe's groans to giverelief 

In Bourbon's overthrow s 



COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 181 

Renown'd Ramilia's tented field, 
Where Gallia dropt her idle shield, 
And to the British standard kneel'd, 
Beheld young Gard'ner there. 

Young Gard'ner, where the combat mowM 
The falling ranks, and widely strow'd 

Destruction and despair. 
Wielded serene his youthful arms, 
And, kmd'ling at the dire alarms, 

Enjoy'd the raging war : 
But here, (for steel and flying shot 
Fall chiefly to the hero's lot,) 

Swift thro* his lips the glancing bullet rung, 

His lips, on which the unfinished oath was hung ; 
Nor stopt its wing'd impetuous force, 

Till through the neck it ploughed its angry 
course. 

Amazing thought ! that they who life expose. 
Where all the thunder of the battle glows, 
Who see pale death triumphant ride 
Upon the crimson's surging tide. 
In blasphemy and proud contempt should rise 
And hurl their mad defiance to the skies ; 

Whither a moment may convey 
Their souls, dislodgingfrom theirquiv'ring clay, 
To take their last inexorable doom. 
Big with immortal wrathjand dire despair to come. 

Such Gard'ner was in early youth ; 

And while the warrior's ray 
Beam'd round his head, celestial Truth 

He spurn'd, and scorn'd her ways : 
And, though th' Almighty arm was near, 
Made his endanger'd life its care, 

And heal'd the burning scores ; 
Yet vice, collecting with his strength. 
Soon, soon bursts out in wilder length, 

And like a torrent roars. 



182 APPENBIX TO 

Now in the wide enchanting bowl 
The hero melts his manly soul : 
And now he blots the shades of night 
With blacker scenes of lewd delight : 
Anon in sport he lifts his brow to heaven, 

And swears by the Eternal name ; 
Asks that the bolt may on his head be driven? 

And courts the lagging flame. 
So Pharaoh, when the fev'rish blains 

No more emboss'd his flesh, 
Nor shot infection through his veins, 

Assum'd his rage afresh ; 

And hard, grew harder still, 

And propp'd on his wild will, 
Set up the standard of his pride, 
Curs'd Isr'el's God and King, and all his plagues 

defy'd. 

But Muse, in softer notes relate, 
For softer notes upon thee wait. 
How Gard'ner, when his youth had rang'd 
These guilty scenes, to heav'n estrang'd, 
Paus'd inhis mad career,and was divinely chang'd. 
That God, whose piercing radiance darts. 
O'er all our ways, and all our hearts, 
The bold transgressor from his throne survey'd. 
And thus, in accents breathing mildness, said : 
" Go, mercy, charg'd with my supreme command. 
Thou, fairest daughter, thron'd at my right hand, 

Go, wing thy downward race. 
And stop that rebel in his furious way ; 
His heart shall thy victorious call obey, 
And take the willing stamp of grace : 
For never shall thy call successless prove, 
And thou lament thy baffled aim. 
If thou but dart thy chosen flame, 
Arm'd with the Saviour's energy of love.'* 
He spoke ; and gave th' Almighty nod. 
The sanction of th' eternal God : 



COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 183 

At once the joyful news is propagated round. 

Loud anthems from the golden roofs rebound, 
And heaven's high chrystal domes re-murmur 
with the sound. 

Mercy obeys ; and from the empyreal height 

Precipitates her glitt'ring flight ; 
A starry circle sparkled round her head, 
And a wide rainbow o*er her progress spread. 
Muse, sing the wondrous plan, 

And sing the wondrous hour, 

In which the Sov'reign pow'r 

The Almighty work began. 
And signalized her arm, and triump'd o'er the man. 

Bent on adult'rous shame 

The sinner she beheld ; 
His bosom burnt with guilty flame. 
And at the future joy in secret raptures swell'd. 
Enrag'd, he curs'd the lazy moon 
In her nocturnal tour. 

That thought his bliss would come too soon, 

And clogg'd the midnight hour ; 

^Twas then, when lust's malignant sway 
Had stifl'd conscience' pang, and sniother'd rea- 
son's ray, 

That mercy stept between 

Th' adult'rer and his sinful scene ; 

And painted on his mental sight. 

Dressed round in beams divinely bright. 

The Saviour stretch'd upon the tree, 
In purple sweats, and dying agony : 
(Such was the vision and the blaze the same, 

That Saul, intent on murders, saw. 
When Jesus, speaking from the radiant flame, 

O'erwhelm'd his conscious soul with awe.) 

Then thus a voice arrests his ear : 

" See, Gard'ner, see thy Saviour here ! 
And was this wood 
Ting'd in my blood, 
And did I languish in these woes for thee, 
Andcanstthou plunge these recent wounds inme?*' 



184 APPENDIX TO 

0*erpow'rM with vast surprise, 

A prisoner of the skies 

The swooning champion falls, 
And fear, that never yet his soul had shook, 
Bedews his limbs, glares wild upon his look, 

And all his soul appals : 
But half the agony was unfulfill'd, 
Till mercy from her chrystal urn instill'd 

Fierce on his heart three burning drops, 
Drops that from Sinai came. 
From Sinai, where th' Almighty thunderer forms. 
His shafted lightnings, and his bolted storms. 

And from whose boiling tops 
The wild sulphureous surge lies down in liquid 
flame ; 

Stung with th* unsufFerable smart. 

That fest'red at his heart, 

Gard'ner awakes, and round he throWs 

His ghastly eyes, and scarce he knows, 
Or if he lives in nature's midnight gloomy 
Or, clos'd in hell's unfathomable womb, 
Black o'er his head eternal horrors roll, 
And the keen knawing worm devours his inmosl 

soul. 

But when his wand'ring thought had found 
Plimself a tenant of the ground, 
Still, still his conscience felt the flaming wound. 
Sudden before his prospect glows 
The everlasting gulf of woes ; 
From the o'er-hanging brink he seems to bend, 
(The brink that crumbled as he stood, 
And nodded o'er the dreadful flood,) 
And down in headlong ruin to descend 
To the broad burning waves, and pains that never 
end.* 
He turns : but ah ! no friendly hand, 
Nor spark of glimm'ring hope, appears. 
Amidst the raging torment of his fears ; 

* See Milton's Paradise lost, b. xi. 1. 416. 



COL. GARDINER^S LIFE. 185 

But outlavv'd from th* realms of shining bliss, 

He thinks he feels the unextinguished fires, 

A waving waste of blue ascending spires, 

And plunges in the bottomless abyss : 

For, oh 1 his sins in crowding numbers stand. 

And each tempts vengeance from th' Almighty 

hand ; 
But fiercer o*er the rest ingratitude appears, 
That scorn'd the Saviour's love, and flaming hor» 
ror wears. 
But while in sad confusion toss'd, 

And tortur'd with despair, 
He doom'd his soul forever lost, 
The bright ethereal fair, 
(For 'twas her kind design 
Not to destroy, but to refine,) 

Amidst the darkness and the storms 
Her sacred embassy performs ; 
For g;uilt, display'd in all its frightful dyes, 
And crimson 'd over with redeeming blood, 
Draws out the rolling anguish from his eyes. 
And all his stubborn soul with low submission 
bow'd. 
*Tis done : O miracle of love ! 
Not minds below, nor minds above, 
Great God ! can trace thy mystic ways, 
And pay the equal note of praise. 
'Tis done. And now with outstretched wings 
Back to the skies the radiant Pow'r withdrew, 
And, as her mounting path she springs. 
The silver trump of victory she blows, 
In stronger dyes her arch refulgent glows, 
And a far streaming glory tracks th* ethereal 
blue. 

At once, abjuring all his sins, 
Gard'ner the heavenly life begins, 
And pleads the honours of his God 
With irresistible defence 
Against the colour'd arts of eloquence, 
9,2 



186 APPENDIX TO 

Tho' clouded with his Maker's frown-^ 
And crushed beneath his rod. 
But quickly a celestial ray 
Shot o'er his soul unclouded day, 
And balmy dews, and blooming life were giv'n , 
The early antepast of heav'n. 
And now what equal words shall paint 
How Gard'ner, freed from tyrant lusts, 
Nor longer toss'd in passion's gusts, 
Felt, spoke, and acted all the saint ! 
That holy name, which he profan'd before, 
Behold him now with suppliant knee adore ; 
At morn and ev'n his warm devotions rise. 
Like clouds of incense, fragrant to the skies « 
No more the grape's nectareous juice 
Could tempt beyond a prudent use ; 
No wanton speech defil'd his tongue ; 
No deed designs his neighbour wrong : 
But the fair streams of innocence, 
And unconfin'd benevolence, 
O'er all his life uninterrupted ran. 
And thro' their chrystal mirrorsshew'd thetnan. 

The numerous characters he bore, 
With a distinguish'd praise he wore. 
And subject, soldier, husband, parent, friendi 
He blended, and ennobled to the end. 
Now with seraphic transports fix'd, 
The pinions of his zeal aspir'd, 
Scarce patient till ne broke the mortal shell, 
And bid this empty scene, and dusky globe, 

farewell. 
Heav'n was his home, and to his home he bent> 
And e'er the rounds of fatal life were spent, 
Thiiljer his passions would divinely roll, 
The swift-wing'd heralds of his coming soul. 
Peace ai his tent would often light, and sing, 
And shed the dewy blessings from her wing : 
And nllss devolving from the front above, 
Pour o'er his heart extatic life and love. 



COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 187 

Thus Gardiner livM ; till from the gloomy 
North 
Rebellion, grasping targe and steelly arms, 
Rush'd, like a mountain-boar, impetuous forthi 
And shook our realms with horrible alarms ; 
Rebellion, aiming at one wasteful sway. 

To strike the diadem from Brunswick's head, 
Tear Liberty, and all her mounds away, 
And Popery's overwhelming horrors spread. 

The news to Gard'ner came,. 
And fann'd the noble flame, 
Which pure religion, heav'n-born liberty, 

And dauntless fortitude had rais'd ; 
And as the gathering terrors thundcr'd nigh. 
With a redoubled strength the mounting fervours 
blazM. 
What tho' distemper had subdu'd his limbs, 
And age defrauded half the purple streams, 
That bloom*d his features o'er, 
When in rebellion's storm before. 
He, rising in the glorious cause 
Of George's rights, and Britain's laws. 
Swept down the traitorous files, and Preston 
swam with gore ; 
Yet his unbroken soul disdains 
Age's dull load of cramps and pains ; 
His youthful rage returns, 
And for the battle burns : 
Then, springing from Francissa's tender arms, 
Dissolv'd in flowing tears, 
O'erwhelm'd with bodmg fears. 
And only solac'd with the view 
That heav'n their friendship would renew ; 
He, in th* unshaken confidence of pray'r, 

Sways the keen flame of his revenging sword 
For his eternal, and his earthly lord. 
Serenely meets the dangers wild alarms. 
Plants his embattl'd force, and waits the rushing 
war. 



188 APPENDIX TO 

So Michael>* bent on glorious fight, 
A^'ainst Satanic rage and might, 
Came tow'ring to the field ; 
Unconscious of a quivering fear, 
He saw the foe bis dusky horrors rear, 
Wave his broad liriming sword, and heave his. 
moony shit' id. 
Not far from where Edina hfts 
Her tow'rs inio the skies, 
Or where the ocean-bounding clifts 

In clouded summits rise, 
Presion extends her humble cots, 
Long, long unknown to Fame : 
Bin flying routs, and purple spots 
Have samp'd th' eiernal shame. 
Here, here, (oh could Time's brazen pen 
Dash the reproach away. 

Or, as the day returns again, 
Might midnight choak its ray !) 
Britannia's troops in vain 
Oppos'd the rebel-host, 
And fled inglorious o'er the plain. 
Their courage wither'd and their standards lost. 
Muse, paint the doleful scene 
With sighs and tears between. 
For sighs and tears should rise 
From ev'ry British heart, and gush from all our 
eyes. 
Swift on the loyal van 
The yellow furies ran. 
Like the wild ocean that has rent 
Its shores, and roars along the Continent ; 
Or in the wini^ed lightning's livid glare. 
Darting along tb' immeasur'd fields of air. 
Confounded at the shock, 
The yielding squadron's broke : 
And now, (for hell inspir'd the throng,) 
The gloomy murd'rers rush'd along j 

* Milton's Paradise Lost, b. vi. 1. 255> 



COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 189 

And fierce the steelly blade 
Its horrid circles play'd, 

Till hideous cries, 

Quiv*rinpf sighs. 

Hopeless screams^ 

Batter'd limbs, 

Bloody streams, 
And universal rout deformM the ground, 
Xaid waste the British strength, and the wide 

champaign drown'd. 
*^ Come on, come on I'* mad Elcho cries, 
And for his murders thanks the skies, 
(While the Italian from afar, 
Too soft a soul to mix in war, 
Enjoying all the guilt, beheld 
His bloody harpies tear the field.) 

" Ply, ply the thirsty steel, 

" Round the full vengeance wheel ; 
" Each heretic must yield his breath 
" That for the Hanoverian brood 

" Or lifts a sword, 

" Or speaks a word, 
" Come, gorge your souls with death, 
*' And drown your steps in blood : 
*' Think, think) what blissful periods roll be- 
hind, 
" Let London's mighty plunder fill your mind, 
" When boundless wealth shall be with bound- 

*^ less empire join'd." 

Gard'ner, with mind elate 

Above the rage of fate. 

His country's bulwark stood, 
'Midst broken lines of death, and rising waves of 
blood. 

His soul disdains retreat. 

Though urg'd by foul defeat. 
Now to his scattering friends he calls. 
To wheel again and charge the foe ; 
Now imrls the wide-destroying balls. 

Now deals the 'vengeful blow. 



190 APPENDIX TO 

Forsaken and alone? 
And torn with gashing wounds, 
He hears the treas'nous ^hout, he hears the loyal 
groan : 
But nought the purpose of his soul confounds; 
And still with new delight 
He tempts the midmost fight, 
ProppM on his sacred cause and courage of his 
own, 
Th' embattled ranks of foot he spies 

Without a leading chief, 
And, like a shooting ray, he flies 
To lend his brave relief. 

Here the broad weapon's forceful sway, 

Swung with tempestuous hand. 
Ploughed through his flesh its furious way, 
And stretch'd him on the strand. 
Welt'ring in gore, with fiery fiends beset. 
The dying Gard'ner lies ; 
No gentle hand to wipe the mortal sweat. 
And close his swimming eyes. 

The unrelenting crew 

The hero disarray'd ; 

But struck at his majestic view, 

Their souls were half dismay'd : 
And, had not hell inslamp'd its hate, 
Their stony eye-balls o'er his fate 
Had streamM with human woe ; for, heavenly 
mild, 
He o'er their gloomy forms the christian pardon 
smil'd. 
But not a tear must bathe, or garment shield 
His mangled limbs from sight, 
Down trodden in the fight : 
While his fair munslon, that o'er-topsthe field, 
The naked murther sees, and trembles from its 
height. 
Still the departing flame of life 
Wav'd languishing in doubtful strife ; 



COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 191 

Till such his servant's faithful care, 

(May Heav'n's distinguish'cl goodness crown 

The goodness to his master shewn !) 
The wheels slow-moving from the scenes of war, 

To Tranent bore th' expiring chief, 
In sullen sounds remurm'ring to his grief. 
Urania, mark the melancholy road, 
And with thy tears efface the scattering blood ; 
Nor stopt, till on the late reposing bed 

(Oh ! rather 'tis the fun'ral bier !) 
You see the hero's pallid body spread, 

And his last anguish hear. 

Half choak'd with clotted gore, 

He draws the hollow moan ; 
Flitting his pulse ; and fix'd his eyes, 
All pale and motionless he lies, 

And seems to breathe no more. ■ ■ 

Oh ! that's the life dissolving groan ; 
Farewell, dear man ! for in that pang thy mind 
Soars to its God, and leaves the clog behind. 

Gard'ner is dead ! — The bloody trump of Fame 

Proclaim'd the mighty death ; 
In ev'ry look the posting rumour came, 

And flew on every breath. 
The widow'd partner of his life 

The doleful tidings hears, 
And, silent in stupendous grief. 

Her eyes refuse their tears : 
OppressM beneath th' immeasurable weight, 

Her spirit faints away, 
As sympathetic with the hero's fate, 

It meant to quit its clay. 

The pledges of his love 

Their filial duty prove, 
And each with tender hands uprears, 
With hands all cover'd o'er in tears, 

Their mother's sinking head : 

And groan resounds to groan ; , 

For, oh ! the best of husbands gone, 

The best of fathers dead ! 



192 APPENDIX TO 

But Gardiner's death is more than private wa ; 
Wide and more wide th^ increasing sorrows run,: 
O'er British lands unlimited they go, 
And fly across the seas, and travel with the sun. 
Religion, that from heav'n had bow'd, 
To watch the scale of fight, 
When holy Gardiner fell, 
Who lov'd, and who adornM her cause so well, 
Retir'd behind a cinmson cloud, 
Nor could sustain the sight. 
Britannia, where she sat 
Upon the sea-beat shore, 
To eye the battle's fate, 
Her silver mantle tore : 
Then thus, her blushing honourii wann'd, 
Her sceptre quiv'ring in her hand. 
Her laurels wither'd, and her head declin'd, 
Ten thousand terrors boding in her mind. 
She to the deep in bitter wailings griev'd. 
While her fall'a helm the trickling drops re- 
ceiv'd : 
" What havock of my martial force 

Has this sad morn beheld. 
Torn, gash'd, and heap'd without remorse 

Upon the naked field 1 
But Gard'ner's death afflicts me most, 
Than whom a chief I could not boast 
More faithful, vigilant, and brave ; 

And should across his grave 
An hecatomb of Highland brutes be slain. 
They could not recompense his injur'd ghost, 
Norfully quench my rage, and wipe away my stain.i> 

But see, in splendid state 

Cherubic convoys come. 
And waft the hero from his fate 

To his celestial home. 

Now, nov/ he sails along 

Encircled with their throng, 
(The throng, that clap their mantling wings, 
And to loud triumphs strike their strings,) 



COL. GARDINER'S LIFE, 19S 

Through liquid seas of day 
Ploughing the azure way, 
Till to the starry tow'rs the squadrons rise. 
The starry tow'rs, thick sown with pearl and gold, 
Their adamantine leaves unfold, 
And shew the entrance to th* empyreal skies : 
Through them our hero mark'd his road, 
And through the wheeling ranks of heaven 
An unobstructed path was giv*n. 
Till he attained th* eternal throne of God ; 
A throne that blaz'd in uncreated beams, 
And from its footstool gush*d unnumbered streams, 
Streams, that in everlasting currents roll, 
And pour the boundless joy o'er all th' expanded 

soul. 
Well hast thou done, th* Almighty Father spoke : 
Well hast thou done, th' exalted Jesus cry*d ; 
Well hast thou done, (all heav'n the Euge took,) 
The saints and angels in their songs reply'd. 
And now a robe of spotless white. 
But where the Saviour's flowing vein 
Had blush'd it with a sanguine stain. 
Invests him round : In various light 
(For such was the divine command,) 
Refulgent on his brows a crown was plac'd ; 
And a triumphal palm his better hand 
With golden blossoms grac'd. 
Nigh to the seat of bliss 
His mansion was assign'd ; 
Sorrow and sin forsook his breast. 
His weary soul was now at rest. 
And life, and love, ^nd ecstasies 
Unbound his secret pow'rs, and overflowM his 
mind. 

Nor has thy life, heroic man, been spilt 
Without a wrath proportion'd to the guilt : 
Enkindled by the cries that rose 
From thy dear sacred blood, with those 
R 



194 



APPENDIX TO 



That shriek'd for vengeance from the braVe 
Munroes, 
Who fell a martyred sacrifice 
To cool remorseless butcheries, 
Heav'n sends its angel righteously severe, 
And from the foe exacts the last arrear. 

For when the barbarous bands, 
Thick as the swarms that blackened Egypt's 

strands, 
And furious as the winter's rushing rains, 
Impell'd by whirlwinds througli the plains, 

Had o'er our country roll'd, 
Young William rose, (auspicious name, 
Sacred to Liberty and Fame !) 
And their mad rage controll'd. 
Back to their hills and bogs they fled, 
^For terror wing'd their nimble speed,) 
And howl'd lor help in vain : 
William pursu'd, and Lunch'd his vengeful ire, 
(As o'er the stubble runs the crackling fire) 

Upon the grov'Iing train : 
Sbudd'ring with horror and despair, 
With beH'wing pain they rend the air, 
Till Culloden's illustrious moor 
<Jroan'd with the heaps of slain, and smok'd 
with rebel-gore. * - 

Then, Muse, suppress thy rising sigh^ 
•And wipe the anguish from thine eyes ; 
Sing, how Rebellion has receiv'd its doom. 
How Gard'ner dwells in his eternal home, 
And in each British heart has rais'd a lasting 
tomb* 



COL. GARDINER'S LIFE* 195 



NO. III. 

AN ACCOUNT OF SOME REMARKABLE PARTICULARS 
CONCERNING THE ANCIENT FAMILY OF THE 
MUNROES OF FOWLIS. 

WHILE I was endeavouring to do justice 
to the memory of that excellent man, and most 
beloved friend, whose Memoirs I have now 
concluded, and was mentioning, in the course 
of my narration, the tragical consequences 
which the unnatural rebellion, by which he 
fell, had drawn along with it, and the many 
other valuable persons of wdiich it had also 
deprived us, I could not but particularly reflect 
on the awful catastrophe of Sir Robert Munro, 
and his two brothers, the Captain and the 
doctor, who all, within the compass of eight 
months, ^nd in less than twelve after the death 
of Colonel Gardiner, (with whom they were 
we? '-acquainted, and to whom they were allied 
in He bonds of a virtuous and honourable 
friendship,) fell a sacrifice to the rage and 
cruelty of the same savage destroyers. I was 
desirous of interweaving so remarkable a piece 
of history, with a subject, to which it was, 
alas ! so nearly connected : And therefore I 
applied myself to a person of high rank most 
nearly related to them, on whose information 
I \\'c\s sure I might entirely depend, entreating 
the favour of such an account of these three 
excellent brothers, and of the circumstances of 
their death, as I might safely and properly ofFei' 
to the view of the public. 



196 APPENDIX TO 

This honourable person referred me to a 
gentleman well acquainted with the history of 
the family of the Munroes of Fowlis, and pos- 
sessed of a distinct historical account of it, 
taken from the annals which have been kept of 
that family for many ages past, and from the 
old writs, charters, and other authentic deeds 
belonging to it, which are the vouchers of 
these annals. 

This gentleman was pleased to favour me 
with a pretty large historical account of this 
family, beginning it much higher, and carrying 
it through a much wider extent than I could 
have expected from the particular view with 
which I first requested information. I next 
obtained instructions on the same subject from 
a gentleman at London. I was then furnished 
with a particular relation from another gentle- 
man, a pious minister of the Church of Scot- 
land, with whom I have the happiness of being 
well acquainted. And as all these are persons 
of such a character, that none who know them 
can question the veracity and testimony of 
each, so they were each of them happy in a 
most intimate acquaintance with all the three 
deceased brothers, after whom I inquired. 
And, last of all, I received from a fourth gentle- 
man an historical account of this family from 
the most early times ; which, by the date it 
bears, was compiled a great many years ago, 
and which, it seems, was intended to have been 
published in an historical account of some of 
the ancient families of Scotland ; which work 
became aborti\ e through the death of the author. 



COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 197 

When I compared these several accounts, 
as I received them from time to time, it gave 
xne great satisfaction to find them all agree, 
and tally so exactly, in their accounts of this 
family, and of the three excellent brothers 
last deceased. On an attentive perusal of 
these informations, I found they contained 
what was too curious and important to be lost, 
and yet too long to be inserted in the memoirs 
of Colonel Gardiner, without breaking the 
unity of design in a manner that would have 
proved inconvenient. I concluded therefore,, 
that (especially as those memoirs were finish- 
ed before some of these papers came to my 
hands, ) it would be best to present it to the 
world in a distinct piece, connected by way of 
Appendix to the former. And I feel a most 
sensible pleasure in the addition I am hereby 
making to the work, as it is paying some little 
debt of gratitude to the illustrious dead ; and 
at the same time doing a just honour to the 
surviving branches of a family from whence 
so many heroes have sprung, and of which 
there are still, (though after much sad desola- 
tion made in it,) most worthy remains. And' 
I hope, that it may not only entertain my 
readers with some remarkable facts worthy of 
commemoration, but excite in their breasts 
something of the same generous spirit, to which 
nothing can more powerfully instigate the 
mind than the view of such glorious examples. 

The family of the Munroes of Fowlis i,s 
among the most ancient and honourable famr^ 
R 2 



198 APPENDIX TO 

lies in the north of Scotland, and has gener- 
ally been remarkable for a brave, martial, and 
heroic spirit. It is mentioned by Buchanan 
with a memorable testimony,^ when, after 
speaking of the difficulties in which Mary 
Queen of Scots was involved at Inverness, he 
adds, "That as soon as they heard of their 
Sovereign's danger, a great number of the 
ancient Scots poured in around her, especially 
the Frasers and Munroes, which, (says he,) 
were esteemed among the most valiant of the 
clans inhabiting those countries." And how 
well the latter have ever since continued to de- 
serve that character, the following memoirs, 
brief as they are, may in some degree shew. 

The Munroes of Fowlis have, in every one 
of their generations, been intermarried with 
many of the best families of nobility and gen- 
try in the north of Scotland. And it is yet 
more for their honour, that they were among 
the first in those parts that embraced the Re- 
formation, and have ever since been zealous 
assertors of it. And many of them have not 
only given great countenance and encourage- 
ment to the ministers of the gospel in the par- 
ishes under their influence, in consequence of 
which a great harvest of most eminent chris- 
tians hath been produced there ; but also have 
themselves been signal examples of true piety, 
and a behaviour in all its branches most orna- 



• Audito principis periculo, magna priscorum Scotorum 
uiultitudo aflfuit, imprimis Fraserii et Mimroii, hominumi 
fortissimoiNjm in illis gentibus familicisc. Buchan. Hist. Lib- 
xvii. page 618. 



COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 199 

mental to a christian profession. — I fear there 
have been few families to which such a char- 
acter can be universally applied : But it is 
certain, that so far as it is the case, it is the 
most illustrious of all hereditary honours, and 
therefore seems to have been mentioned with 
the utmost propriety by my several correspon- 
dents in this connexion. 

According to Buchanan, it was in the be- 
ginning of the eleventh century, and about the 
time of the conquest in England, when Mal- 
colm, the second of that name. King of Scots, 
first distributed, or, as it is expressed, feued 
out or feed the lands of Scotland to the great 
families thereof, on account of their eminent 
services in his many battles with the Danes, 
vmtil he forced them quite out of his kingdom. 
And according to tradition, it was on that oc- 
casion that the country betwixt the borough of 
Dingwell and the water of Alness, in the shire 
of Ross, was given to Donald Munro ; and 
which is therefore to this day called Ferrin- 
donald, that is, Donald's Land. And part of 
these lands were afterwards by the king erect- 
ed into a barony, called the barony of FowKs. 

I shall not follow the annals of this family 
so far, as to entertain the public with a detail 
of the barons of Fowlis in their several gene- 
rations through these early ages, but shall 
begin my particular narration of them only 
from the time they became protestants, when 
their brave behaviour and example will afford 
us more instruction, and the facts concerning 
them may be depended on \vith more certain- 



200 APPENDIX TO 

ty. And therefore I shall only before that 
time observe, 

That George, ninth baron^^ of Fowlis, (in 
a direct lineal descent from the above Donald 
the first baron,) was slain at the memorable 
battle of Bannockburn, fought by king Robert 
Bruce of Scotland against king Edward IL of 
England, in the year 1314. George, tenth 
baron of Fowlis, and son of the former, was 
also slain, with a great many of his name, at the 
battle of Halydon Hill, near Berwick ; in which 
battle the Scots were defeated by the English, 
and a great number of them killed, on the 22d 
of July, A. D. 1333. Robert Munro, seven- 
teenth baron of Fowlis, was slain at the battle 
of Pinkie near Edinburgh, with many of his 
name, where the Scots were again defeated by 
the English, and a great number of them killed, 
A. D. 1547. — I mention the fall of these three 
gentlemen, with their friends and followers 

* It is to be observed, 1st, That baron in Scotland does not 
import nobility, as it does now in England : For, at the time 
the lands of Scotland were divided as above, there were then 
no nobility in that nation ; but the great families had their 
estates erected into baronies, with a jurisdiction over all the 
vassals, tenants, and possessors thereof ; which was the origin 
and support of the Clans in Scotland, these being the only 
military force in that kingdom, until, upon the union of the 
two crowns in the person of king James YI. of Scotland, 
regular troops were introduced into that kingdom. — To this \ 
would add, 2dly, That the annals of this family contain a gene- 
alogical account of all the barons of Fowlis, from the above 
Donald Munro, to this present time. Several of these can 
only be transmitted to us by tradition : But as to those whom 
1 have mentioiired, there is full evidence of the facts concern- 
ing them, from the old writs, charters, and deeds in the family 
of Fowlis ; and even several others of them whom I haye fkol 
mentioned^ are tak^n notice of in these old writs. 



COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 201 

fighting valiantly in the cause of their country, 
as illustrating the valour and bravery of this 
family in their different generations, and shew- 
ing how justly they merited the character 
which Buchanan gives them in the place be- 
fore cited. How long this brave spirit has 
continued, as it were, hereditary to them, will 
appear from what follows. 

The first protestantof this family was Robert 
Munro, the eighteenth baron of Fowhs, son 
to Robert last mentioned, and the same who 
came to the assistance of Mary Queen of Scots 
upon the occasion before cited, A. D. 1562. 
He embraced the protestant religion quickly 
after : and, being a wise and good man, he left 
an opulent estate to the family, and died A. D. 
1588 : He was succeeded by his son, Robert 
Munro, nineteenth baron of Fowlis, who died 
the same year with his father. The next to 
him was his brother Hector Munro, twentieth 
baron of Fowlis, who died A. D. 1603. Robert 
Munro, his son, succeeded him, the twenty- 
first baron of Fowlis, who flourished when 
Gustavus Adolphus, that justly celebrated 
king of Sweden, (whose religion and valour 
were so distinguished among his many relig- 
ious and valiant cotemporaries,) was engaged 
in a protestant war against the Emperor Ferdi- 
nand II. in defence of the civil as well as sa- 
cred liberties of Germany. The generous 
heart of this worthy gentleman was so struck 
with a regard to the common cause, in which 
he himself had no concern but what piety and 
virtue gave him, that he joined Gustavus with 



202 APPENDIX TO 

a very great number of his friends, who bore 
his own name. Many of them gained great 
reputation in this war ; and that of Robert their 
leader was so eminent, that he was made 
Colonel of two regiments at the same time, 
the one of horse and the other of foot, in that 
service ; in which he acquitted himself with 
so much fidelity and zeal, that he died of the 
wounds which he received in crossing the 
Danube, and was buried at Ulme, in the month 
of March, 1633. 

He was succeeded by Sir Henry Munro^ 
twenty-second baron of Fowlis, the next male 
heir of the family,^ who was also Colonel of 
a regiment in the same service ; and upon his 
coming over to Britain, was created a baronet 
m June, 1633. Returning afterwards to Ger- 
many, he died at Hamburgh in April, 1635. 
His son. Sir Hector Munro, was twenty-third 
baron of Fowlis, who died without issue in the 
year 1651, at seventeen years of age* Sir 
Robert Munro, twenty-fourth baron of Fowlis, 
succeeded as the nearest male heir, being grand- 
son to George Munro of Obsdale, who was 
third son to Robert Munro, the eighteenth ba- 
ron of Fowlis. 

My information imports, that in the before 
mentioned annals of this family, there is a well 
attested list of officers, (of which I have a copy 



* It was formerly the custom in Scotland, and is so still 
among ancient families, to entail the succession of their fami- 
ly estate to the nearest mail relation of the deceased, passing 
by the females, thereby to preserve their estates in their owa 
name and family. 



eOL. GARDINER'S LI^E. 203 

in the memorial last sent me,) wherein there 
are three generals, eight colonels, five lieuten- 
ant-colonels, eleven majors, and above thirty 
captains, all of the na me of Munro ; besides a 
great number of si ibalterns. Most of these vv^ere 
in that religious war under the great Gustavus 
Adolphus ; and some of the descendants of 
this family are at this day in possessioa of con- 
siderable military commands in Sweden, and 
various parts of Germany, 

General Robert Munro (who was uncle to 
Sir Robert, the twenty-fourth baron of Fowlis) 
published, in the year 1644, an account of this 
religious war under Gustavus Adolphus, in a 
folio volume, entitled, " Military Discipline 
learned from the valiant Swede :'' A book, of 
which (though I never happened to see it) I 
have heard a high character. I am informed 
that it contains an exact journal of that expedi- 
tion into Germany for the relief of the distress- 
ed Protestants ; and it is said to be filled with 
most excellent observations on military affairs, 
delivered in a strain of piety which seems to 
breathe the spirit of its brave and worthy au- 
thor. And indeed, bv what I have heard of 
that instructive history, it is hard to say when 
there has been, even in the christian world, so 
religious and well disciplined an army as this ; 
at the head of which, a mysterious providence 
permitted that royal hero and martyr, tlie great 
Gustavus, to fell. Would to God the time 
might at length come, when our commanders 
sliall take their lessons from it ; at least so far 
as to learn from the example of some of the 



204 APPENDIX TO 

bravest and greatest of men, to maintain in the 
military bodies under their command the au- 
thority of the Lord of Hosts ; and particularly, 
that reverence for his name, and for his day, 
which was there so beautifully and gloriously 
conspicuous ! 

This worthy General, in the year 1641, was 
appointed by King Charles I. major-general of 
the Scots forces that were sent to Ireland to 
suppress the infamous and destructive rebel- 
lion there. It is not my business here to insist 
on those unhappy circumstances which so long 
retarded their march, and so greatly obstructed 
their success. I find, however, that he had at 
length the honour to be in the number of those 
by whom God gave blood to drink to those 
miscreants, who had rendered themselves so 
eminently worthy of it by a series of outrages, 
which the most sanguinary and detestable fac- 
tion on earth (I mean that of Popery) has sel- 
dom been enabled to exceed. For, in the 
year 1644, this illustrious commander, at the 
head of 14,000 of the Scots and English protes- 
tants, fought and defeated 22,000 of the Irish in 
Ulster, killed aiid took m.any thousands of 
them, and seized on a great quantity of cattle 
and other provisions, of which the Protestants 
were then in great want. 

The general was a great favourer of the 
Presbyterian interest, and among the first who 
established it in Ireland. He sat in their Pres- 
byteries and Synods, and adhered to the inter- 
est of the Parliament till he apprehended they 
were carrying matters to an excessive height 



COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 205 

against the king ; on which he accepted of a 
commission from him, and acted under the 
Duke of Ormond ; to which he was persuaded 
by his nephew, Sir George Munro, (of whom 
afterwards, ) who had always adhered to the in- 
terest of Charles L as he afterwards did to that 
of Charles 11. 

In the year 1645, the General was surprised 
by Colonel Monk, before he could draw out 
his men from their quarters ; and he and they 
were by that means taken prisoners : but 
he continued not long in their hands ; for 
death came and set him at 1 iberty soon after. 

It is worthy of our notice, by the way, that 
in the year 1644, we find Monk imprisoned by 
the parliament, for having accepted a commis- 
sion from the King, and acted in consequence 
of it, though before that he had acted by com- 
mission from the Parliament : And again, in 
the year 1648, we find him fighting for the 
Parliament against the king : And his surpris- 
ing and taking General Munro was the first 
thing that brought him into favour with the 
Parliament. For in that reeling time, we find 
men of a much better character than Monk 
changing sides again and again, as they appre- 
hended the one party or the other to be in the 
right, from the many different demands, refu- 
sals, and concessions, which then happened 
between them. 

The General was succeeded in his command 
by Sir George Munro, brother to the last men- 
tioned Sir Robert, and both of them nephews 
s 



206 APPENDIX TO 

to General Robert by his brother Colonel John 
Munro of Obsdale, in the Swedish service : 
Sir George was also bred in that service with 
his uncle, and afterwards served with him in 
Ireland, where he arrived to the rank of a 
Colonel. He was made Major-General by- 
King Charles II. and had a body of forces un- 
der his command at Kendal, when James, Duke 
of Hamilton, was defeated by Cromwell at 
Lancaster, a. i>. 1648. Upon this defeat 
Sir George returned to Scotland and defeated 
the Earl of Argyle : and afterwards, his forces 
being disbanded by order of the states of Scot- 
land, he went to Holland, and joined King 
Charles II ; after whose restoration he was 
made Lieutenant-General and Commander in 
Chief in Scotland. 

Sir John Munro, twenty-fifth baron of 
Fowlis, succeeded his father Sir Robert, a. n. 
1668. He was a member of the Convention of 
the estates of Scotland at the revolution, and 
a very zealous promoter of that happy event. 
He was no less strenuous in asserting Presbyt- 
ery, and, on that account, being also remarka- 
ble for a large and corpulent stature, he was 
nick-named the Presbyterian mortarpiece. 
His eminent piety and zeal had exposed him 
to great sufferings in the cause of religion, in 
those unhappy and infamous days, when the 
best friends to their country W'Cre treated as 
tlie worst enemies to the government ; and 
w^hen to be conscientiously solicitous to depart 
from evil made so many thousands a prey. 



COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 207 

Sir John suffered greatly among many others of 
whom the world was not worthy : His person 
was doomed to long imprisonment, for no pre- 
tended cause but what was found against him 
in the matters of his God : And his estate, 
which was before considerable, was harassed 
by severe fines and confiscations, which reduc- 
ed it to a diminution, much more honourable 
indeed than any augmentation could have 
been, but from which it has not recovered even 
to this day. He died a. d. 1696, and was 
succeeded by his son. 

Sir Robert Munro, twenty-sixth baron of 
Fowlis, who succeeded his father, was also a 
pious and benevolent man, and for some time a 
Captain ; but it pleased God early to deprive 
him of his sight, and to continue him in that 
condition during the remainder of his life. 
Under this calamity, he calmly submitted him- 
self to that God, who can shed abroad a far 
more chtering light on the soul than these 
bodily eyes can admit. Providence was pleas- 
ed to bless him with children, in whom he 
could not but find the highest satisfaction ; and 
whose amiable characters in general leave no 
room to doubt of the tenderness and respect 
with which they would treat so worthy a par- 
ent, under a distressing calamity, which would 
naturally move compassion even in strangers* 
There were four of them who all reached ma- 
turit) of age, and w^ere the heirs of many 
blessings, though Providence suffered three of 
them to fall almost at once by most unjust and 



208 APPENBIX TO 

barbgrous hands, Sir Robert, Captain George 
Munro, and the Doctor, whose christian name 
was Duncan : Their only sister, married to 
Mr. Gordon of Ardoch, still survives ; an ex* 
ample of profound submission and fortitude, 
mingled with the most tender sensibihty of 
temper. 

Sir Robert Munro, twenty. seventh baron of 
Fowlis, succeeded his father, a. n. 1729. He 
went early from the university to the camp, 
where he served seven years in Flanders, being 
some time Captain in the Royal Scots, before 
that fatal cessation of arms, a. d. 1712, as his 
late Majesty with so much propriety publicly 
called it ; to which therefore I shall not pre- 
sume to give either a milder or a severer 
name. It was here that Sir Robert contracted 
that acquaintance and strict friendship with 
good Colonel Gardiner, which ran through the 
remainder of their lives, and of which each was 
so worthy. On Sir Robert's return from. 
Flanders, he was reduced, on account of his 
inflexible opposition in Parliament (of which 
he was then a member) to the measures which 
the ministry were then taking to subvert the 
succession in the present Royal Family, and 
with it, no doubt, the Protestant religion, of 
which that Family was and is under God the 
firmest barrier. 

My correspondent observes, concerning Sir 
Robert, " That he was noted for the counte- 
nance he gave to divine worship, both in pub- 
lie and in his family, and for the regard which 



COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 209 

he always expressed to the word of God, and its 
ministers ;'' and then adds, ^' That he was sin- 
cere in his friendship, and full of compassion 
even to the meanest of those around him : And 
that he was remarkable, above most, for his ac- 
tivity in the discharge of any office of friendship, 
where he had professed it, and for his great 
exactness in the performance of his promises.'* 
His military services are particularly worthy 
of being mentioned here. In the year 1715, 
he, with his clan, in conjunction with the Earl 
of Sutherland, kept the Earl of Seaforth, with 
3000 men under his command, from joining 
the rebel camp at Perth, for near two months, 
and thereby prevented the Earl of Marr from 
crossing the Forth, till the Duke of Argyle had 
gathered strength sufficient to oppose him. In 
consequence of this Sir Robert exposed his 
own country to the fiercest resentments of the 
rebels, by whom it was plundered and destroy- 
ed ; while others, who yet pretended to be 
friends to the government, saved themselves 
and their lands by capitulations with the ene- 
my. Being then made Governor of Inverness, 
Sir Robert kept 400 of his name there, during 
the rest of that rebellion, regularly paid and 
regimented : And these, together with some 
other clans, well-afFected to the interest of the 
present Royal Family, kept possession of that 
important pass, whereby the rebels w^ere hin^ 
derf d from making a stand there, when they 
were dislodged from Perth by the Duke of Ar- 
gyle. 



210 APPENDIX TO 

He was, in the year 1716, made a commis- 
sioner of inquiry into the forfeited estates of the 
rebels ; in which he strenuously exerted him- 
self in procuring a number of parishes to be 
erected through the rebel countries, and pro- 
vided wdth suitable stipends out of the confis- 
cated lands ; whereby the gospel w^as preach- 
ed in places where it had not been preached 
since the Reformation : So that some new 
presbyteries were formed in countries where 
the discipline and worship of Protestant 
churches had before no footing. And such 
was the compassion and humanity which attem- 
pered his high courage, that by his interest 
with the government he did eminent service to 
the unfortunate widows and children of such 
as had, to the ruin of their families, been en- 
gaged in the rebellion. 

Sir Robert was thirty years a member of 
Parliament by his family interest ; during 
which time he always maintained the firmest 
attachment to the service of his Majesty and 
his Royal Father, and to the religion and lib- 
erties of his country. His fidelity and zeal for 
these did not need to be purchased, solicited, 
or quickened, by personal favours : It continu- 
ed through all this period unshaken and active, 
though, from the ending of his commission of 
inquiry in 1724, till the year 1740, he had no 
post under the government. He then found 
the nation was to be involved in a foreign war, 
the necessity of which was generally appre- 
liended and acknowledged : And therefore, 



COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 211 

though his friends thought his merit and ex- 
perience might have pretended to something 
more, as he had been in the rank of a Lieuten- 
ant Colonel twenty-five years, his heart w^as 
too generous and too warm not to accept of 
the same commission, which was then given 
him in the Highland regiment. This regiment, 
w^ien first formed out of independent Highland 
companies, was under the command of the 
Earl of Crawford as its Colonel, who, all the 
while he stood in that relation to it, was abroad, 
confined by the wounds he had received as a 
volunteer against the Turks. During this 
time Sir Robert Munro was his Lordship's 
Lieutenant- Colonel. Before it went to Flan- 
ders, Lord Semple w^as its Colonel ; but he al- 
so being generally absent, and Sir Robert an 
old experienced oflicer, the regiment during 
the war w^as left under his care, and the man- 
ner in which he modelled and conducted it 
will remain in many respects an immortal hon- 
our to his name. 

It is indeed surprising, that a regiment, com- 
posed of Highlanders, who are generally used 
to so rapacious a life at home, should yet by 
discipline have been brought to so good a be- 
haviour, as that they should be judged the 
most trusty guards of property ; and that, 
when the people in Flanders were allowed a 
protection for their goods, they should choose 
to have some of this regiment, among others 
of the British soldiers, appointed to protect 
them. This may indeed seem hardly credit 



212 APPENDIX TO 

ble ;^ yet my informer assures me, that he had 
it from an officer of their own, of unquestiona- 
ble credit ; who added farther, that it was but 
seldom he had observed a man among them 
drunk, and as seldom heard any of them swear. 
This is very agreeable to the high character 
w hich 1 heard of this regiment from an Eng- 
lish gentleman then in Flanders, whose vera- 
city is undoubted, and who cannot, 1 am sure, 
be suspected of any prejudice here. And 
among Sir Robert's papers there is still exist* 
ing a copy of a letter from the Elector Palatine 
to his Envoy at London, desiring him to thank 
the King of Great Britain, in his name, for the 
excellent behaviour of the Highland regiment 
while they were in his territories, " which,'' 
as he says expressly, " was owing to the care 
of Sir Robert Munro, their Lieutenant Colo- 
nel, for whose sake, (he adds,) he should al- 
ways pay a regard to a Scotchman for the 
future." 

I the rather mention these particulars, not 
only as they do an honour to Sir Robert, and 
his worthy brother, through whose interest, 
and that of the other officers, with the private 

* A very worthy person, to whose inspection this Appendix 
has been committed since it was finished, observes here^ 
That though the Highlanders are much addicted to depreda- 
tions on their neighbours, yet the very actors even in them are 
generally as faithful to their trust as any set of people whatever. 
And that if his officer shews but any degree of civility and kind- 
ness to one of these people, the fear of disobliging him has a 
greater influence than that of stripes generally has on others 
of the common people. This remark I thought proper to in- 
sert here, that the representation of this aifair might be as im- 
partial as possible. 



COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 2l3 

men, this great reformation was effected ; but 
likewise as they seem to shew, in a very con- 
vincing manner, of how great importance it is, 
that some methods be seriously thought of 
for breaking the other uncultivated inhabitants 
of these countries into useful men, by bringing 
them at once under the protection and disci- 
pline of the laws, and enforcing their obedience 
to them, by teaching them the principles of re- 
ligion, and the arts of peace and commerce. 
This is a happy effect, which, methinks, w^c 
may naturally hope for from the late rebellion, 
pernicious as it has in many respects been, 
considering how much it has reduced them to 
the pow er of the government, and how justly 
obnoxious it has made the chiefs of many 
fierce and barbarous clans. 

According to my best information, from 
persons who are most thoroughly acquainted 
with affairs in the North, the two great springs 
of rebellion amongst the inhabitants of these 
Highland countries are, their idleness and their 
ignorance. The former subjects them to a 
slavish dependence on their masters, and is 
also the cause of their being so addicted to 
stealing ; and the latter makes them a prey to 
Popish priests and missionaries from Rome, 
who are constantly, and in great numbers, 
trafficking among them. It has been very 
justly remarked, that the success they have in 
seducing these poor ignorant people is occa- 
sioned in a great measure by the vast extent of 
parishes in those Highland countries ; some of 
them being betwixt 30 and 40 miles in length, 



214 APPENDIX TO 

and 20 and 30 in breadth, full of great moun- 
tains, rapid rivers, and arms of the sea ; and 
those parishes which are more moderate in 
their extent, are about 20 miles in length, and 
10 or 12 in breadth : and it is every where to 
be observed through these parishes, that around 
the place of the minister's residence, the in- 
habitants are almost all Protestants, but in the 
corners, which are remote from his residence, 
they are generally all Papists. 

Now, it is evident that these poor people 
can only be cured of idleness, by teaching 
them manufactures, to which they are wholly 
strangers. And it is hard to imagine how 
they can be rescued from Popish ignorance, until 
there are several new parishes erected in those 
extensive countries. It would ill become me 
to pretend to direct the government of Britain 
on such an occasion ; but I know it to be the 
opinion of many persons in those parts, of dis* 
tinguished wisdom and experience, that if it 
should be thought fit to employ the produce of 
the estates confiscated by the late rebellion for 
these valuable purposes, this, with the thou- 
sand pounds of his Majesty's royal bounty 
annually bestowed, would go a good way to- 
wards remedying these two great evils, with 
their train of miserable consequences which wc 
have of late so deeply felt. And who would 
not rejoice to see all these poor people sharing 
with us fully in all the privileges and advan- 
tages of christians and of Bi itons ? I pray God 
to guide and prosper every scheme for this 
purpose ! And in this connection, I cannot but 



215 

mention and recommend the society for propa- 
gating the knowledge of religion, and with it 
the principles of loyalty, in these Highland 
countries ; a design, in which so many worthy 
persons, both in the northern and southern 
parts of our island, are incorporated. But their 
stock is by no means equal to the purposes 
here mentioned ; and, by their constitution, 
they are confined to the support of schools, 
which are indeed going on with great success, 
as far as the revenue will allow them. 

But to return from this natural, and there- 
fore, I hope, very pardonable digression, the 
behaviour of Sir Robert Munro, and this re- 
giment, at the battle of Fontenoy, was heard 
through all Britain. He had obtained leave of 
his Royal Highness the Duke of Cumberland 
to allow them their own way of fighting. 
They were early in the field, and were ordered 
to attack the main battery of the French at the 
village from which the battle derives its name ; 
which they did, and drove the enemy from it : 
But finding the body of the French forces 
deeply intrenched behind the battery, they did 
not give over the char8;e, but bravely drew up 
to attack them. Sir Robert, according to the 
usage of his countrymen, ordered the whole 
regiment to clap to the ground on receiving 
the French fire ; and instantly, as soon as it 
was discharged, they sprung up, and coming 
close to the enemy, poured in their shot upon 
them, to the certain destruction of multitudes, 
and drove them precipitately throu^^h their own 
lines ; then retreating, they drew up again, 



216 APPENDIX TO 

and attacked them a second time after the same 
manner. These attacks they repeated several 
times that day, to the surprise of the whole army. 

Sir Robert was every where with his regi- 
ment, notwithstanding his great corpulency ; 
and W'hen in the trenches, he w^as hauled out 
again by the legs and arms by his own men. 
And it is observable, that when he com- 
manded the whole regiment to clap to the 
ground, he himself alone, with the colours be- 
hind him, stood upright, receiving the whole 
fire of the enemy ; and this, because, as he 
said, though he could easily lie down, his 
great bulk would not suffer him to rise so 
quickly. 

His preservation that day w^as the surprise 
and astonishment, not only of the whole army, 
but of all that heard the particulars of the 
action ; and my information relates, that a 
most eminent person in the army was heard to 
say upon the occasion, '' That it was enough 
to convince one of the truth of the doctrine of 
predestination, and to justify what king Wil- 
liam, of glorious memory, had been used to 
say, that every bullet has its billet, or its 
particular direction and commission v/here it 
should lodge." It is added, that on the re- 
treat of our army, the Highland regiment was 
in the rear, and a great body of the French 
horse being ordered to pursue, Sir Robert 
made his regiment face about, and gave them 
a general fire, so full and cfiectual, that a great 
number of them being brought to the ground, 
the rest wheeled about and rode off. 



COL. GARDINER'S LIFE# 217 

But to close what relates to Sir Robert 
Munro ; — as an acknowledgment for his brave 
services at Fontenoy, as well as on former oc- 
casions, his majesty was pleased to appoint 
him to succeed General Ponsonby, who was 
slain there, in the command of his regiment, 
which was among the troops that arrived at 
Newcastle during the rebellion, and made a 
part of General Wade's army. They were 
afterwards ordered to Scotland ; and being 
upon the left wing at the battle of Falkirk, on 
that fatal day, the 17th of January, 1745-6, 
they shamefully left their brave Colonel and 
Lieutenant-Colonel, with five or six more of 
their officers, to be cut in pieces* 

By the accounts which the rebels themselves 
give of Sir Robert, he defended himself against 
six of them with his half-pike, and killed tv/o 
of their number ; upon which, a seventh came 
up, and, (as they expressed it,) poured a shot 
into his belly, which brought him immediately 
to the ground. In this dreadful moment, in 
the midst of all this extremity, his brother, 
Dr. Munro, whom the warmest instances of 
his friends could not divert from exposing his 
person in defence of his country, and who was 
near at hand, ran to him to support him, at- 
tended by his servant and the surgeon of the 
regiment ; but they were all murdered on the 
spot, in the most barbarous manner, by those 
cruel men. 

Sir Robert's body was the next day sought 
out ; and his face was so cut and mangled by 

T 



218 APPENDIX TO 

these savages after he fell, that it could scarce 
be known. He was found and buried hon- 
ourably in the church-yard of Falkirk by 
the Macdonalds, who, though engaged in re- 
bellion against their lawful sovereign, could not 
but pay some public regard to the memory of 
so valiant a man, the principal persons among 
the rebels attending him all the way to the 
grave. 

And thus fell these two brave brothers, for 
the Doctor undoubtedly deserves that title with 
Sir Robert, who, though professing the peace- 
ful art of medicine, adventured himself amidst 
the most visible danger, fired with love to his 
illustrious brother ; and attempting in vain to 
bring him some aid in his last extremities, 
amidst armed enemies, expired with him, no 
less lamented than he by all that intimately 
knew him. How just that lamentation was, 
will appear from the accounts which 1 have had 
of the Doctor's character from his most inti- 
mate friends, which I here subjoin. 

He was a gentleman of an excellent under- 
standing, and had a brightness and solidity in 
his genius, which are not often united ; but 
which, when they concur, do greatly illustrate 
each other. He had been bred up to the study 
of medicine and surgery, which in Scotland 
are frequently joined, as they have so great an 
affinity. '' He had a large stock of knowl- 
edge, not only in his own profession, but in 
most parts of polite literature. But these (adds 
my correspondent) I hold cheap when compar- 
ed to the goodness of his heart. His greatest 



COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 219 

Study was to know himself; and I verily 
believe, that since the early ages of Christiani- 
ty, there has not appeared a more upright 
person.'' 

He spent a great many years in the East 
Indies, and had most accurately and diligently 
inquired into the manners, customs, arts, and 
manufactures of the natives, and into the pro- 
duce and commodities of the country : So 
that he was much more capable of giving en-^ 
tertainment to persons of curiosity in such 
things, than travellers commonly are ; and his 
veracity \vas such, that all who knew him could 
entirely depend upon whatever he reported as 
on his own knowledge. To all these advan- 
tages was added, a memory remarkably tena- 
cious of every circumstance with which he 
charged it : But perhaps it w^as a loss to the 
world that it was so, as it hindered him from 
committing many extraordinary things to 
writing, which might have afforded improve- 
ment as well as delight to the public. 

T'lie want of such memoirs from so able a 
hand is the more to be regretted, as his re- 
markable modesty did not permit him to talk 
much in company. One might spend a good 
deal of time with him, without perceiving by 
any hints from him that he had ever been out 
of Britain : But when his friends seemed de- 
sirous of information on any of these topics, as 
they fell in his way, he communicated his ob- 
servations upon them with the utmost freedom, 
and gave them the greatest satisfaction imag- 
inable y of which some remarkable instances 



220 APPENDIX TO 

happened at the houses of persons of very eon- 
siderable rank, who paid him that respect 
which he so well deserved. 

It was the more to be desired that he should 
have left behind him some written memoirs 
of his own remarks and adventures, as he was 
a most attentive observer of divine providence, 
and had experienced many singular instances 
of it. One is so remarkable, that it claims a 
place here, brief as these hints must necessari- 
ly be. After he had continued eight or ten 

years in the East Indies, he was shipwrecked 
on the Malabarian coast, as he was on his pas- 
sage home : He saved his life on a plank, but 
lost all his eiFects, except a small parcel of dia- 
monds. This ruinous calamity, as it seemed 
to be, obliged him to return to Fort St. 
George, where he experienced, far beyond 
what he could have expected, the extraordinary 
friendship of several English gentlemen of that 
settlement ; and felt the solid effects of it, as 
by their assistance he acquired much more in 
six or seven years following, (for his whole 
stay in that country was about sixteen years,) 
than he had lost by shipwreck : And when he 
left the settlement, he had all sort of encour- 
agement offered him to induce him to stay ; 
but his health and other circumstances obliged 
him to return home. 

This return (which happened, if I mistake 
not, about the year 1726) was a happy provi- 
dence to many : for as he was remarkably 
successful in both the branches of his peculiar 
profession, he took great pains in both : And 



COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 221 

as he did this without fee or reward, when he 
was satisfied the circumstances of the afflicted 
needed such assistance, he was an instrument 
of saving many limbs and many lives, which 
must otherwise in all probability have been 
lost. 

To this account I must beg leave to add 
what another of my correspondents writes to 
me concerning the Doctor, in the following 
words : ''As we were often by ourselves, I 
still found him inclined to turn our discourse 
to spiritual subjects, concerning God and reli- 
gion, the offices of the great Redeemer, and 
the power of God's Spirit in convertnig and 
sanctifying the souls of men, and the hope of 
eternal life through Christ.'' I transcribe the 
passage thus particularly concerning this pious 
physician, as I esteem it, in one view, a pecu« 
liar honour to him, and permit me to say, in 
another, to the profession itself : Blessed be 
God, that though it is so rare a case, yet there 
are those of that learned body, who are not 
ashamed of the gospel of Christ ; but who, 
knowing it to be true on incontestible evi- 
dence, and having felt (what one would imag- 
ine every rational creature who believes it to 
be true, must immediately see,) its infinite im- 
po] tance, have steadily determined to submit 
to its influence, and to maintain its honours in 
the midst of all the scorn and derision of their 
infidel brethren ; a determination, which re- 
quires no less courage, especially in some tem- 
pers, than that generous instance of fraternal. 
T 2 



222 APPENDIX TO 

love which will entail such lasting glory on the 
memory of Doctor Munro. 

There yet remained one valiant brother of 
this family, whom Providence reserved for a 
few months, before he shared the fate of the 
other two. The person I mean was Captain 
George Munro, Esq. of Culcairn ; of whom I 
have conceived such an idea from the account 
of him which has been put into my hands, 
that I cannot forbear wishing the world were 
blessed with a much larger narrative of his life 
and character than my instructions will furnish 
out, or than I should have room to insert in 
such an Appendix as this. Much do I regret 
that Providence never favoured me with an op- 
portunity of being personally acquainted with 
him, especially as I have reason to believe, 
from what my friends in the north write, that 
he had the like disposition towards forming a 
friendship with me, as produced so quick a 
growth of it in the breast of Colonel Gardiner, 
whom, on the whole. Captain Munro seems to 
have resembled almost in every part of his char- 
acter, taking it as it was since that happy change 
which I have so largely described in the fore- 
going memoirs : But what was wanting in my 
personal knowledge is supplied by a large and 
animated account from my correspondents, 
who had the best opportunity of knowing him, 
and upon whose information I can safely de- 
pend. 

Captain George Munro was the second 
brother of the family, the Doctor being the 
youngest son. He, like the other gentlemen, 



COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 223 

had the advantage of a very liberal education, 
and soon discovered marks of a good genius, 
which might have qualified him for making a 
figure under any character in the learned world. 
Besides the other branches of literature, com- 
mon to all the professions, he acquired a stock 
of theological knowledge : and before he was 
seventeen years old, he was well acquainted 
with ecclesiastical history, so as to be able to 
give a good account of the advance and decline 
of the christian interest in various ages and 
countries, and the degrees and manner by 
which the corruption and reformation of the 
church had been introduced, established, or 
obstructed. I the rather mention this, as it 
seems to be an accomplishment of great im- 
portance ; on which account, I much wonder, 
that the generality of young gentleman should 
think it so little worth attending to : And I 
wish I could say, that all who are intended 
for the ministry were so careful in pursuing it, 
as its usefulness and its absolute necessity to 
them might demand. 

But his taste and talents particularly lay for 
a military life ; and in the year 1715, he be- 
haved himself with great courage and activity 
during the whole course of that rebellion ; 
and after the dispersion of the rebels, he was 
employed in reducing the inhabitants of those 
Highland countries, and the adjacent isles, to a 
submission to the government. 

In the year 1719, when, on occasion of the 
invasion from Spain, General Wightman, with 
the troops under his command, had waited 



224 APPENDIX TO 

long at Inverness for a body of Highlandmen 
to conduct the troops through the mountains 
to Glenshiel, where the Spaniards and rebels 
were encamped, and when many promises of 
such assistance made to the general had failed, 
Sir Robert Munro being then out of the coun- 
try, his brother the Captain (of whom we now 
speak) assembled, in a most expeditious man- 
ner, a body of the Munro clan, and marched 
with the regular troops to Glenshiel, where 
they distinguished themselves by the gallantry 
of their behaviour, driving the enemy before 
them in a sharp action, in which many of them 
were killed, and more wounded ; and among 
the rest the Captain himself in a very danger- 
ous manner. He had, however, the satisfac-^ 
tion to see these foreign invaders, and their 
rebel abettors, totally routed and dispersed 
on the Pretender's birth day, June 10. And 
though his constitution suffered much by the 
loss of his blood on this occasion, yet it pleas- 
ed God to recover him for further service to 
his country. 

As he still continued vigorous and active in 
the service of the government, he obtained the 
command of one of the independent compa- 
nies then in the national pay : And when they 
were afterwards regimented and sent to Flan- 
ders, he attended them thither, and continued 
in the public service till the year 1744, when 
he became so exceedingly asthmatic that he 
could not breathe in the Flanders air : On 
which General Wade not only allowed him to 
sell his commission, but, out of compassion to 



COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 225 

his distress, joined his brother Sir Robert in 
obliging him to do it, and to return home ; 
to which at length he submitted, though not 
without regret : and thereupon returned to his 
domestic seat at Newton in Ross- shire, in the 
views of spending his days with his family and 
friends in a peaceful retreat. But Providence 
determined otherwise, and had reserved for 
him some farther labours of a military life, in 
which it had appointed him gloriously to toil 
and fall, after services which might have done 
an honour to his most vigorous and active days. 

The late wicked and unnatural rebellion 
broke out soon after his arrival ; and the dan- 
ger of his country and its religious and civil 
constitution gave him at once a new stock of 
life and spirits. 

When General Cope came to Inverness, 
and had been assured of being joined by a 
number of Highlanders to conduct him and 
his small army through the rebel countries be- 
tween that town and Aberdeen, Captain Mun- 
ro, with 200 of his brother's clan, were indeed 
the only persons that were found willing to 
perform the promises that were made by sev- 
eral others. He marched with the General 
directly to Aberdeen, from whence he vv^as or- 
dered to return home : In which return he 
was under a necessity of marching through a 
great number of the rebels under the command 
of Gordon of Glenbucket, who lay on the road 
to attack the Captain and his party ; but 
Glenbucket finding that the Captain was deter- 
mined to dispute every inch of ground with 



226 A!»PENDIX TO 

him, retired, and allowed him to proceed with- 
out disturbance to Inverness. 

Not long after that, the Earl of Loudon 
sent Captain Munro, in conjunction with the 
Laird of Macleod, with a body of men, to re- 
lieve the city of Aberdeen, and the neighbour- 
ing country, then greatly oppressed by the 
outrages committed upon them by Lord Lewis 
Gordon and the rebels under his command. 
Accordingly the Captain and Macleod pro- 
ceeded as far as Inverury, a small town a few 
miles west of Aberdeen, where they halted to 
receive intelligence ; and from the narrowness 
of the place, they were obliged to quarter a 
great number of their men in distant places 
through the adjacent country. In the mean 
time, a considerable reinforcement from the 
main body of the rebel army, which then lay 
at Perth, was sent under the command of a 
French officer, supported by their picquets 
and Irish brigades ; by the assistance of which 
Lord Lewis attempted to surprise and cut off 
the Captain and his whole party. In this view 
they were removing towards Inverury, in the 
dusk of the evening, after Captain Munro and 
Macleod had sent their men through the coun- 
try to their quarters : but though there was 
not such good intelligence provided as might 
have been wished, they w^ere providentially 
discovered at such a distance, that Capt. Mun- 
ro and the Laird of Macleod had time to draw 
up the men they had in the town of Inverury, 
in so regular a manner, that, in consequence 
of it, they gave the enemy such a warm recep- 



GOL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 227 

tion, attacking them at once in the front and 
flank, that many of them were left dead in the 
field. The brave Captain and his associate 
continued very sedate, intrepid, and active, 
during the heat of the skirmish, till at last being 
overpowered by far superior numbers, they 
thought it adviseable to retire, and brought off 
their party safe and in good order, excepting 
some few who had been killed or taken prison- 
ers. Among the latter was Mr. Adam Gordon of 
Ardoch, nephew to Captain Monro, who was 
seized by the rebels, and treated with a deal of 
rigour and severity for a considerable time, 
while detained in their power. But they did 
not presume to pursue the rest ; and the young 
gentleman at length made his escape, to the 
great joy of the family, being, I hope, reserved 
by Providence to tread in the steps of his hero- 
ic uncles, and to bless his country with some 
considerable future services. 

Upon the retreat of the rebels northward be- 
fore his Royal Highness the Duke of Cumber- 
land, the Earl of Loudon had not sufficient 
strength to maintain his possession of Inver- 
ness against them : whereupon he, with the 
Lord President and Captain Munro, retreated 
to the shire of Sutherland, proposing to defend 
themselves there until the season allowed his 
Royal Highness to march the troops to Inver- 
ness. But in this interval, the rebels having 
spread themselves through the shires of Inver- 
ness, Murray, and Ross, they got possession 
of a great many boats ; by the help of which 
they transported a great part of their body to 



228 APPENDIX TO 

the Sutherland coast, under the covert of a 
very thick fog : Upon which, the Earl of Lou- 
don, with the Lord President and the Captain, 
w-ere obliged to retreat through the western 
parts of Ross into the isle of Sky, where they 
continued until the rebel army was broke and 
dispersed at the battle of CuUoden. 

I have been the more particular in this nar- 
rative of the Captain's conduct during the rebel- 
lion, as it gives some light into the situation 
and transactions of the friends of our constitu- 
tion in those parts at that time : And my infor- 
mation assures me, that the facts are taken from 
persons of undoubted veracity who were pres- 
ent with the Captain in his march to Aberdeen 
with General Cope, and in his return from it : 
and who were with him in the skirmish at In- 
verury, and were afterwards witnesses of his 
death. 

Upon his return from the isle of Sky, he w^as 
constantly employed in expeditions through 
the rebel countries of great extent, to reduce 
them to a submission to the government, which 
he performed with diligence and zeal, but still 
w^ith the neatest humanitv. This the rebels 
themselves must acknowledge, as he never did 
the least injury to any man ; and in all that 
vast circuit which he made through these dis- 
tant countries, he neither himself seized, nor 
allowed those under his command to seize any 
thing but arms ; and yet, notwithstanding all 
this humanity, his diligence and zeal had been 
such in the whole of this rebellion, as render- 
ed him obnoxious to the rage and revenge of 



eOL. GARDINER'S LIF£« 229. 

the rebels, who had vowed his destruction up- 
on the first opportunity ; and because they had 
not courage to face him, they had recourse to 
the base method of assassination, which was 
effected on the Lord's day, the 3 1st of August, 
1746. He was then on a long and necessary- 
march at the head of 500 men, on the side of 
Locharkey, amongst the wild rocks of Locha- 
ber, where, as he was passing by the side of a 
wood, between the advanced guard and the 
main body of his men, he was shot dead by a 
villain who concealed himself behind the trees 
and rocks in the wood, and who, by the advan- 
tages of that situation, got off without being 
discovered, and has never since been found 
out : An event to the Captain, no doubt, most 
happy, and a blessed kind of instantaneous 
translation to the regions of endless peace and 
triumphant joy ; but to all who loved the pub- 
lic, not to be mentioned without the tenderest 
sensibility and deepest regret. 

One of my correspondents on this occasion 
concludes his account of the deaths of Sir Rob- 
ert, the Doctor, and the Captain, in thete 
words : '^ Thus died these three worthy men, 
to the irreparable loss of the country in which 
they lived, all of them remarkable for a brave 
spirit, full of love to their native land, and of 
disinterested zeal for religion and liberty ; 
faithful in their promises, stedfast in their friend- 
ship, abundant in their charity to the poor and 
distressed ; moderate in their resentments, and 
easy to be reconciled ; and especially, remarka- 
u 



230 APPENDIX TO 

ble for their great and entire love to each oth- 
er ; so that one soul seemed, as it were, to ac- 
tuate all the three. "^ To which it might have 
been added, blessed with a sister, not unwor- 
thy to make a fourth person in such a friend- 
ship. 

My other correspondent, in his character of 
the Captain, speaks in this manner : " The 
great foundation of all his other virtues was 
laid in a most sincere and stedfast regard to 
the Supreme Being, He carefully studied the 
great doctrines of our holy religion, which he 
courageously professed, and, as it was requi- 
site, defended, in whatever company he might 
be cast : He did this with the greater freedom, 
as his practice was always agreeable to it ; and 
in particular, his regard, both to the book and 
to the day of God. He had from his infancy 
been trained up in an acquaintance with the 
Scripture, and he daily perused it with pleas- 
ure, and doubtless with advantage. And 
though the natural cheerfulness of his temper 
inclined him on other days to facetious turns 
in conversation, yet on the Sabbath he was not 
only grave and devout, but carefully attentive 
that all his speech might tend to edification, 
and as far as possible minister grace to the 
hearers. • He \^'as exemplary in the social vir- 

* The intimacy of their friendship, though chiefly founded 
on a similarity of character, might perhaps be further promot- 
ed, by their being so nearly of the same age ; for Sir Robert 
was born August 24, 1684 ; the Captain, September 18, 16^; 
and the Doctor, September 19, 1687. Sir Robert therefore 
was slain in his sixty-second year ; the Captain in his sixty- 
first, and the Doctor in his fifty -ninth. 



COL. GARDINER'S LIFE. 231 

tues, temperate in the use of food and sleep^ 
and rose early for devotion, (wherein, as in ma- 
ny other respects, he remarkably resembled his 
beloved friend Colonel Gardiner.) He vi^as 
also thoroughly sensible how much a faithful 
discharge of relative duties is essential to the 
character of a christian. He approved himself 
therefore as a brave and vigilant officer, a most 
active and faithful servant of the crown, and a 
true patriot to his country in the w^orst of times ; 
and in domestic life was exemplary as a hus- 
band, a father, and a master. He was a most 
affectionate brother, a faithful friend, a constant 
benefactor, and a sure patron of the oppressed ; 
and, to crown all, was at last, in effect, a martyr 
in the cause of that religion he had so eminent- 
ly adorned, and of those liberties he had so 
long and so bravely defended.'' 

It must give a sensible pleasure to every 
reader, who enters into these things with a be- 
coming spirit, to reflect, that notwithstanding 
these unparalleled and irreparable losses, this 
family, which has been long celebrated for so 
many worthy branches, is not yet extinct ; but 
that both Sir Robert Munro and the Captain 
have left those behind them, who may not only 
bear up the name, but if they answer the hopes 
w^hich in the opening of life they give to their 
country, may add new honours to it. 

I hope the reader will not lay down this 
narrative, which is now brought to a close, 
without deriving some useful lessons from the 
remarkable train of providence, which this 
Appendix, as well as the preceding Memoirs, 



232 APPENDIX, 

ofFer to his observation. And the more he 
enters into these lessons, the more will he be 
disposed to lift up his Vv^ishes and prayers to 
God for those valuable remains, both of Sir 
Robert Munro's and of Colonel Gardiner's 
family, w^hich may yet be w^ithin the reach of 
such addresses; that God may graciously 
support them in their sorrows, and that all the 
virtues and graces of the illustrious dead 
may live in them, and in their remotest 
posterity. Amen. 



The Christian Warrior animated and crowned. 



SERMON, 

OCCASIONED BY THE 

HEROIC DEATH 

OF THE 

HON. COL. JAxMES GiVRDINER. 



BY P. DODDRIDGE, D. D. 



— Ille Timorum 

Maximus baud urget Lethi Metus :- 



-Ig-navum Rediturse parcere Vitse. 

LUCAN. 



U 2 



TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE THE 

LADY FRANCES GARDINER. 

Madam, 

THE intimate knowledge I had of Col. Gardiner's 
private as well as public character, and of that endear- 
ed friendship which so long subsisted between him and 
your ladyship, makes me more sensible than most 
others can be, both of the inexpressible loss you have 
sustained, and of the exquisite sense you have of it. 
I might, in some degree, argue what you felt, from the 
agony with which my own heart was torn by that ever 
to be lamented stroke, which deprived the nation, and 
the church, of so great an ornament and blessing : 
And indeed. Madam, I was so sensible of your ca- 
lamity, as to be ready in my first thoughts to congrat- 
ulate you, when I heard the report which at first 
prevailed, that you died under the shock. Yet cooler 
reflection teaches me, on many accounts, to rejoice 
that your ladyship has survived that dearest part of 
yourself ; though after having been so lovely and 
pleasant in your lives, it would have been matter of 
personal rejoicing, in death not to have been divided. 
The numerous and promising offspring with which 
God hath blessed your marriage, had evidently the 
highest interest in the continued life of so pious and 
affectionate a mother : And I hope, and assuredly 
believe, there was a more important, and to you a 
much dearer interest concerned, as God may be, and 
is, signally honoured, by the manner in which you bear 
this heaviest and most terrible stroke of his paternal rod. 

God had been pleased. Madam, to make you both 
eminent for a variety of graces ; and he has propor- 
tioiiably distin{j;uished you both, in the opportunity he 
has given you of exercising those, which suit the most 
painful scenes, that can attend a pious and an honour- 
able life. But when I consider what it is, to have lost 



236 DEDICATION. 

such a man, at such time, and in such circumstances, 
I must needs declare, that brave and heroick as the 
death of the Colonel was, your ladyship's part is 
beyond all comparison the hardest. \ et even here has 
the grace of Christ been sufficient for you ; and 1 join 
with your ladyship in adoring the power and faith- 
fulness of him, who has here so remarkably shewn, 
that he forgets not his promise to all his people, of a 
strength proportionable to their day ; that they may be 
enabled to glorify him in the hottest furnace, into 
which it is possible they should be cast. 

To hear, (as 1 have heard from several persons of 
distinguished character, who have lately had the hap- 
piness of being near your ladyship) of that meek re- 
signation to the divine will, of that calm patience, of 
that christian courage, which, in so weak a state 
of health and spirits, you have supported under this 
awful providence, has given me great pleasure, but 
no surprise. So near a relation to so brave a man 
might have taught some degree of fortitude, to a soul 
less susceptible of it than your ladyship's. ]Nor is 
there any doubt but that the prayers he has so long 
been laying up in store for you, especially since the 
decay of his constitution gave him reason to expect a 
speedy remove, will assuredly at such a season come 
into remembrance before God. And above all, the 
sublime principles of the christian religion, so deeply 
imbibed into your own heart as well as his, will not 
fail to exert their energy on such an occasion. These, 
Madam, will teach you to view the hand of a wise, a 
righteous, and a gracious God in this event ; and will 
shew you, that a friendship founded on such a basis, 
so very endearing, and so closely cemented, as that 
which has been here for many years a blessing to you 
both, can know only a very short interruption, and 
will soon grow up into a union, infinitely nobler and 
more delightful, which never shall be liable to any 
separation. 

In the mean time, Madam, it may comfort us not a 
little under the sense of our present loss, to think 
what religious improvement we may gain by it, if 



DEDICATION. 237 

we are not wanting to ourselves ; And liappy shall we 
be indeed, if we so hear the rod, as to receive the 
instructions it so naturally suggests and enforces. 
Persons of any serious reflection will learn from this 
awful event, how little we can judge of the divine 
favour by the visible dispensations of Providence 
here : They will learn, (and it may be of great impor- 
tance to consider it, just in such a crisis as this) that 
no distinguished degree of piety can secure the very 
best of men from the sword of a common enemy : 
And they will see (written, alas, in characters of the 
most precious blood, that war ever spilt in our island) 
the vanity of the surest protectors and comforters 
which mortality can afford, at a time when they are 
most needed. 

These are general instructions, which I hope thou- 
sands will receive, on this universally lamented occa- 
sion : But to you. Madam, and to me, and to all that 
were honoured with the most intimate friendship of 
this christian hero, his death has a peculiar voice. 
Whilst it leads us back into so many past scenes of 
delight, in the remembrance of which we now pour 
out our souls within us, it calls aloud, amidst all this 
tender distress, for a tribute of humble thankfulness to 
God, that ever we enjoyed such a friend, and especial- 
ly in such an intimacy of mutual affection ; and that 
we had an opportunity of observing, in so many in- 
stances, the secret recesses of a heart, which God had 
enriched, adorned, and ennobled with so mvich of his 
own image, and such abundant communications of 
his grace : It calls for our redoubled diligence and 
resolution, in imitating that bright assemblage of 
virtues, which shone so resplendent in our illustrious 
friend : And surely it must, by a kind of irresistible 
influence, mortify our affections to this impoverished 
world ; and must cause nature to concur with grace, 
in raising our hearts upwards to that glorious world, 
where he dwells triumphant and immortal, and 
waits our arrival with an ardour of pure and elevated 
love, which it was impossible for death to quench. 

Next to these views, nothing can give your lady- 
ship greater satisfaction, than to reflect, how happy 



238 

you made the amiable consort you have lost, in that 
intimate relation you so long bore to each other ; in 
which, I well know, that growing years ripened and 
increased your mutual esteem and friendship. Nor 
will your generous heart be insensible of that pleasure, 
which may arise from reflecting, that the manner of 
his death (though in itself so terrible, that we dare not 
trust imagination with the particular review) was to 
him, in those circumstances, most glorious, to religion 
highly ornamental, and to his country, great as its loss 
is, on various accounts beneficial. For very far be it 
from us to think, that Colonel Gardiner, though fallen 
by the weapons of rebellion and treason, has fought 
and died in vain. I trust in God, that so heroic a 
behaviour will inspire our warriors with augmented 
courage, now they are called to exert it in a cause, the 
most noble and important that can ever be in ques- 
tion, the cause of our laws, our liberty, and religion. 
I trust, that all who keep up a correspondence with 
Heaven by prayer, will renew their intercession for this 
bleeding land with increasing fervour, now we have 
lost one who stood in the breach with such unwearied 
importunity. And I am well assured, that of the 
multitudes who lay up his memory in their inmost 
hearts with veneration and love, not a few will be often 
joining their most afl:ectionate prayers to God, for 
your ladyship, and the dear rising branches of your 
family, with those which you may, in consequence of 
a thousand obligations, always expect from. 

Madam, 

Your ladyship's most faithful 

and obedient humble servant, 

P. DODDRIDGE. 

Northampton, Nov. 27, 1745. 



SERMON. 



REV. II. 10. 

-—BE THOU FAITHFUL UNTO DEATHj AND I WILL 
GIVE THEE A CROWN OF LIFE. 

IT is a glory peculiar to the christian relig- 
ion, that it is capable of yielding joy and tri- 
umph to the nmind, amidst calamities, in which 
the strength of nature, and of a philosophy that 
has no higher a support, can hardly give it se- 
renity, or even patience. Those boasted aids 
are but like a candle in some tempestuous 
night, which, how artificially soever it may be 
fenced in, is often extinguished amidst the 
storm, in which it should guide and cheer the 
traveller, or the mariner ; whom it leaves on a 
sudden, in darkness, horror, and fear : While 
the consolation of the gospel, like the sun, 
makes a sure day even when behind the thick- 
est cloud, and soon emerges from it with an ac- 
cession of more sensible lustre. 

The observation is verified in these words, 
considered in connection with that awful provi- 
dence, which has this day determined my 
thoughts to fix upon them, as the subject of my 
discourse ; the fall of that truly great and good 
man, Colonel Gardiner : The endearing 
tenderness of whose friendship would have ren- 



240 SERMON ON THE DEATH 

dered his death an unspeakable calamity to me, 
had his character been only of the common 
standard ; as on the other hand, the exalted 
excellency of his character makes his death to 
be lamented by thousands, who were not hap- 
py in any peculiar intimacy or personal ac- 
quaintance with him. 

While we mourn the brave warrior, the ex- 
emplary christian, and the affectionate friciid ; 
lost to ourselves and our country, to the church 
and the world, at a time when we most needed 
all the defence of his bravery, all the edification 
of his example, all the comfort of his converse : 
Struck with the various and aggravated sorrow 
of so sudden, and so terrible a blow, methinks 
there is but one voice that can cheer us, which 
is this of the great Captain of our salvation, so 
lately addressing him, and still addressing us, 
in these comprehensive and animated words : 
*' Be thou faithful unto death, and I will give 
thee a crown of life." 

With regard to the connection of them, it 
may be sufficient to observe, that our Lord, in 
all these seven epistles to the Asiatic churches, 
represents the christian life as a warfare, and 
the blessings of the future state as revrards 
to be bestowed on conquerors. To him that 
overcometh, will I give such and such royal 
donatives. Pursuing the same allegory, he 
warns the church of Smyrna of an approaching 
combat, which should be attended with some 
severe circumstances. Some of them weie to 
become captives ; the devil shall cast some of 
you into prison : And though the power of the 



OF COL, GARDINER. 241 

enemy was to be limited, in its extent as well 
as its duration, to the tribulation of ten days, 
it seems to be implied, that while many were 
harassed and distressed during that time, 
some of them should before the close of it be 
called to resist unto blood. But their great 
leader furnishes them with suitable armour, and 
proportionable courage, by this gracious assur- 
ance, which it is our present business farther 
to contemplate : Be thou faithful unto death, 
and I will give thee a crown of life. 

In which words you naturally observe a 
charge — and a promise by which it is enforced. 
I shall briefly illustrate each, and then conclude 
with some reflections upon the whole. 

First, I am to open the charge here given : 
Be thou faithful unto death. 

Concerning which I would observe, that 
though it is immediately addressed to the 
church at Smyrna, yet the nature of the thing, 
and numberless passages of the divine word 
concur to prove, that it is common in its obli- 
gation, to all christians, and indeed to all men. 
I shall not be large in explaining the nature 
of faithfulness in general ; concerning which I 
might shew you, that the word here rendered 
faithful, has sometimes a relation to the testi- 
mony which God has given us, and sometimes 
to some trust that he has reposed in us. In 
the former sense, it is properly rendered believ- 
ing, and opposed to infidelity : Be not faithless, 
but believing.^ In the latter, it is opposed to 

* John XX. 27, 
w 



242 SERMON ON THE DEATH 

injustice : He that is faithful in that which is 
leasts is faithful also in much ; whereas, he that 
is unjust in the least, is unjust also in much.^ 
And it is in reference to this sense of it, that 
our Lord represents himself, as saying to the 
man who had improved his talents aright, well 
done, good and faithful servant, f Our deceas- 
ed friend was so remarkably faithful in both 
these senses ; so ready to admit, and so zeal- 
ous to defend the faith once delivered to the 
saints ; and so active in improving those vari- 
€us talents, with which, in mercy to many oth- 
ers as well as to himself, God had entrusted 
him ; that it was very natural to touch upon 
these significations of the word, though it has 
here a more particular view to another virtue, 
for which he was so illustriously conspicuous, 
I mean, the courageous fidelity of a soldier in 
his warfare. 

In this sense of the word, it is opposed to 
treachery or cowardice, desertion or disobedi- 
ence to military orders. And thus it is used 
elsewhere in this same book of the Revelation^ 
when speaking of those who war under the ban- 
ner of the Lamb, the King of kings, and Lord 
of lords, the inspired writer tells us, tliey are 
called, and chosen, and faithful, J a select body 
of brave and valiant soldiers. 

This hint will also fix the easiest and plainest 
sense, in which the persons, to w^hom the text 
is addressed, are required to be faithful unto 
death : Which, though it does indeed in gen- 
* I.uke xvi. 10. f Matt. xxv. 23. i^ Rev. xvii. 14. 



OF COL. GARDINER, 24S 

eral imply, a patient continuance in well doing,^ 
in whatever scenes of life divine Providence 
may place us ; yet does especially refer to mar- 
tial bravery, and express a readiness to face 
death in its most terrible forms, when our great 
General shall lead us on to it. You well know 
this to be an indispensable condition of our be- 
ing acknowledged by him in the day of his fi- 
nal triumph : And of this he warned those that 
gathered around him, when he was first raising 
his army, under the greatest disadvantages in 
outward appearance ; expressly and plainly tel- 
ling them, that they must be content to follow 
him to martyrdom, to follow him to crucifix- 
ion, when they receive the word of command 
to do it ; or that all their profession of regard 
to him would be in vain. If any man, says he, 
will come after me, let him deny himself, and 
take up his cross, and follow me rf For he 
that loveth his own life more than me, is not 
worthy of me ; J he does not deserve the hon- 
our of bearing my name, and passing for one 
of my soldiers ; indeed he cannot on any terms 
be my disciple.^ 

This therefore is in effect the language of 
our Lord, when he says, be thou faithful unto 
death : It is as if he had said, *' Remember 
all you of Smyrna, or of any other place and 
country, that call yourselves christians, through- 
out all generations, that you were by baptism 
enlisted under my banners : Remember, that 
you have as it were sealed, and subscribed 

* Rora. ii. ir. -j- Mark viii. 34. 

4: Matt. X. 37, 29. ^ Luke xiv. 26. 



244 SERMON ON THE DEATH 

your engagement to me, by every sacrament 
you have since attended ;" (as indeed it is 
well known, the word sacrament originally sig- 
nifies a military oath, M^hich soldiers took as a 
pledge of fidelity to their General :) *' Remem- 
ber, therefore, that you are ever to continue 
with me, and to march forward under my di- 
rection, whatever hardships and fatigues may 
lie in the way. And remember, that if I lead 
you on to the most formidable combat, you 
must cheerfully obey the word of command, 
and charge boldly, though you should immedi- 
ately die, whether by the sword, or by fire. 
Should you dare to flee, I am myself your en- 
emy ; and the weapons which I bear, would 
justly be levelled at your own traiterous heads. 
But if you bravely follow me, I know how to 
make you ample amends, even though you fall 
in the action. When no human power and 
gratitude can reach you, it is my giorious pre- 
rogative to engage, that to those who are thus 
faithful unto death, I will give a crown of life." 
We are, therefore, 

Secondly, To consider the promise, by 
which the charge is enforced — I will give thee 
a crown of life. 

And here I might observe, a crown of life 
is the glorious reward proposed, and it is to be 
received from the hand of Christ. 

1. A crown of life is the reward proposed : 
Which we are sure in this connection implies, 
both grandeur and felicity ; here, though rare- 
ly, connected together. 



OF COL. GARDINER. 245 

There is, no doubt, an allusion in these 
words, to the ancient, and I think very pru- 
dent, custom of animating the bravery of sol- 
diers by honorary rewards, and particularly by 
crowns ; sometimes of laurel, and sometimes, 
more rarely, of silver and gold ; which they 
were permitted to wear on public occasions, 
and in consequence of receiving which they 
were sometimes entitled to some peculiar im- 
munities. But here our Lord Jesus Christ, 
conscious of his own divine power and preroga- 
tive, speaks with a dignity and elevation, which 
no earthly prince or commander could ever as- 
sume ; promising a crown of life, and that, as 
was observed before, even to those who should 
fall in the battle : A crown of life in the high- 
est sense ; not only one, which should ever 
be fresh and fair, but which should give im- 
mortality to the happy brow it adorned ; and 
be forever worn, not only as the monu- 
ment of bravery and victory, but as the ensign 
of royalty too : A crown connected with a 
kingdom, and with what no other kingdom 
can give, perpetual life to enjoy it ; perpetual 
youth, and vigour to relish all its delights. 
And this is agreeable to the language of other 
scriptures, where we read of the crown of life, 
which the Lord hath promised to them that 
love him ;^ a crown of righteousness, which 
the Lord the righteous Judge shall give ;t a 
crown of glory, which fadeth not away.J We 
may also observe, 

* Jam. i. 12. f 2 Tim. iv. 8. #1 Pet v. 4. 

w 2 



246 SERMdN ON THE DEATH 

2. That it is said to be given by Christ. 

This some pious commentators have ex- 
plained, as intimating, that it is the gift of the 
Redeemer's free and unmerited grace, and not 
a retribution due to the merit of him that re- 
ceiveth it. And this is an undoubted truth, 
which it is of the highest importance to ac- 
know ledge and consider. The proper wages 
of sin is death ; but eternal life is (in opposi- 
tion to wages) the gift of God through Jesus 
Christ our Lord.^ We should humbly own it 
every day, that there is no proportion between 
the value of our services, and the crown which 
we expect to receive : Should own that it is 
mercy that pardons our sins, and grace that ac- 
cepts our services ; much more, that crowns 
them. Grace, grace, shall (as it were) be en- 
graven upon that crown, in characters large 
and indelible : Nor will that inscription dimin- 
ish its lustre, or impair the pleasure with which 
we shall receive it. I could not forbear men- 
tioning this thought, as a truth of the utmost 
importance, which stands on the firmest basis 
of very many express scriptures ; a truth of 
which perhaps no man living had ever a deep* 
er sense, than our deceased friend. But I 
mention it thus obliquely, because it may be 
doubted whether we can justly argue it from 
hence ; since the word give is sometimes used 
for rendering a retribution justly due, and that 

* Rom. vi. 23. 



01 COL. GARDINER. 



247 



in instances where grace and favour have, in 
propriety of speech, no concern at all.^ 

But it is certain that this expression, I will 
give thee a crown of life, is intended to lead 
our thoughts to this important circumstance ; 
that this crown is to be received from the hand 
of Christ himself. And the apostle Paul evi- 
dently refers to the same circumstance, in terms 
which shew how much he entered into the spir- 
it of the thought, when he says, the Lord, the 
righteous judge shall give it me rf He him- 
self, the great judge of the contest, whose eye 
witnesses the whole course of it, whose deci- 
sion cannot err, and from whose sentence there 
is no appeal : Alluding to the judge who pre- 
sided in the Grecian games, who was always a 
person of rank and eminence, and himself \ 
reached forth the reward to him who overcame 
in them. 

So that on the whole, when our Lord Jesus 
Christ says, be thou faithful unto death, and I 
will give thee a crown of life ; methinks our 
devout meditations may expatiate upon the 
words, in some such paraphrase as this. It is 
as if he had said, to you, and to me, and to all 
his people, '' Oh my faithful soldiers, fear not 
death in its most terrible array, for you are im- 
mortal. Fear not them that can kill the body :% 
You have a nobler part, which they can- 
not reach ; and I will undertake, not only for 

* Compare Matt. xx. 8. Give the labourers their hire. 
Col. iv. 1, Masters, give unto your servants that which is 
just and equal, 

t 2 Tim. if. S. t Matt. x. 28. 



248 SERMON ON THE DEATH 

its rescue, but its happiness. I will answer 
for it, on the honour of my royal word, that it 
shall live in a state of noble enlargement, 
of triumphant joy. Think on me : I am he 
that liveth, though I was dead ; and behold, 
I am alive forever more :^ And because I live, 
you shall live also ;t shall exist in a state, that 
deserves the great and honourable name of life ; 
so that earth in all its lustre and pleasure, when 
compared with it, is but a scene of death, or at 
best as an amusing dream when one awak- 
eth."| 

We may also consider him, as pursuing this 
animating address, and saying, ^' My brave 
companions in tribulation and patience, you 
shall not only live, but reign. Think not, thou 
good soldier, who art now fighting under ray 
banner, that thy General will wear his honours 
alone. If I have my crown, if I have my tri- 
umph, be assured that thoa also shalt have 
thine. Thou mayest indeed seem to perish in 
the combat, and thy friends may mourn, and 
thine enemies insult, as if thou wert utterly cut 
off. But behold, true victory spreads over 
thee her golden wing, and holds out, not a gar- 
land of fading flowers or leaves, but a crown 
that shall keep its lustre, when all the costliest 
gems on earth are melted in the general burn- 
ing ; yea, when the luminaries of heaven 
are extinguished, and the sun and stars fade 
away in their orbs." 

" Nor will I," does he seem to say, "send 
thee this crown by some inferior hand ; not 

• Rev. i. 18. I John xiv. 19. * Psal. Ixxiii. 20. 



or COL. GARDINER. 



249 



even by the noblest angel, that waits on the 
throne I have now ascended. Thou shalt 
receive it from mine own hand ;" (from that 
hand, which would make the least gift valua- 
ble : What a dignity then will it add to the 
greatest !) '^ Nor will I myself confer this 
reward in private ; it shall be given with the 
most magnificent solemnity. Thou shalt be 
brought to me before the assembled world : 
Thy name shall be called over ; thou shalt 
appear, and I will own thee, and crown thee, 
in public view. Thy friends shall see it with \ 
raptures of joy, and congratulate an honour in 
which they shall also share. Thine enemies ' 
shall see it with envy and with rage, to increase 
their confusion and misery : They shall see, 
that while by their malicious assaults they ; 
were endeavouring to destroy thee, they were ^ 
only establishing thy throne, and brightening 1 
the lustre, which shall forever adorn thy brow ; 
while theirs is blasted with the thunder of] 
resistless wrath, and deep engraven with the; 
indelible marks of vengeance. This crown j 
shalt thou forever wear, as the perpetual token 1 
of my esteem and affection : Nor shall it be ! 
merely a shining ornament : A rich revenue, 
a glorious authority, goes along with it. Thou \ 
shalt reign forever and ever ;^ and be a king,] 
as well as a priest, unto God.'^f 

They who enter by a lively faith into the^ 
import of these glorious words, will (I doubt] 
not) pardon my having expatiated so largely; 
upon them. We have believed, and therefore 



• Rev. xadi. 5. 



t Rev. i. 6. 



250 SERMON ON THE DEATH 

have we spoken :^ And I question not, but 
that many of you have, in the course of this 
representation, prevented me in some of the 
reflections, which naturally arise from such a 
subject. Yet it may not be improper to assist 
your devout meditations upon them. 

1. What reason have we to adore the 
grace of our blessed Redeemer, which prepares 
and bestows such rewards as these ! 

While we hear him saying, be thou faithful 
unto death, and I will give thee a crown of 
life ; methinks it is but natural for each of our 
hearts to answer, '^ Lord, dost thou speak of 
giving a crown, a crown of life and glory to me ! 
Too great, too great, might the favour seem, if 
I, who have so often lifted up my rebellious 
hand against thy throne, might be allowed to 
lay down this guilty head in the dust, and 
lose the memory of my treasons, and the sense 
of my punishment together, in everlasting 
forgetfulness. And is such a crown prepared, 
and wilt thou, my injured sovereign, who 
mightest so justly arm thyself with vengeance 
against me, bestow this crown with thine own 
hand ; with all these other circumstances 
of dignity, so qs even to make my triumphs 
thine own ! — What is my strictest fidelity to 
thee ? Though I do indeed (as I humbly de- 
sire that I may) continue faithful unto death, I 
am yet but an unprofitable servant ; I have 
done no more than my duty.f I have pursu- 
ed thy work, in thy strength ; and, in conse- 
quence of that love which thou hast put into 

* a Cor. iv. 13., t Luke xvii. IQ.. 



OF COL. GARDINER. 251 

my heart, it hath been its own reward : And 
dost thou thus crown one favour with anoth- 
er ! — Blessed Jesus, I would with all humility 
lay that crown at thy feet, acknowledging be- 
fore thee, and the whole world, (as I shall at 
length do in a more expressive form) that it is 
not only the gift of thy love, but the purchase 
of thy blood. Never, never had I beheld it, 
otherwise than at an unapproachable distance, 
as an aggravation of my misery and despair, 
hadst not thou worn another crown, a crown 
of infamy and of thorns. The gems which 
must forever adorn my temples, were formed 
from those precious drops, that once trickled 
down thine ; and all the splendour of my robes 
of triumph is owing to their being washed in 
the blood of the Lamb."^- With what pleas- 
ing wonder may we pursue the thought ! And 
while it employs our mind, 

2. How jusdy may this awaken a generous 
ambition to secure this crown to ourselves ! 

Dearly as it was purchased by our blessed 
Redeemer, it is most freely offered to us, to 
the youngest, to the meanest, to the most un- 
worthy. It is not prepared, merely for those 
that have worn an earthly diadem or coronet : 
(Would to God it were not despised by most 
of them, as a thing less worthy of their 
thoughts, than the most trifling amusement, by 
which they unbend their minds from the 
weighty cares attending their station !) But it 
is prepared for you, and for you ; even for 
every one, who thinks it worth pursuing, and 

• Rev. vii. 144 



252 SERMON ON THE DEATH 

accepting, upon the terms of the gospel cov- 
enant ; for every one, who, believing in Christ, 
and loving him, is humbly determined through 
his grace to be faithful unto death. And shall 
this glorious proposal be made to you in vain ? 
Were it an earthly crown that could lawfully 
be obtamed, are there not many of us, notwith- 
standing all its weight of anxieties, and all the 
piercing thorns with which we might know it 
to be lined, that would be ready eagerly to 
seize it, and perhaps to contend and quarrel 
with each other for it ? But here is no founda- 
tion for contention. Here is a crown for each ; 
and such a crown, that all the royal ornaments 
of all the princes upon earth, when compared 
with it, are lighter than a feather, and viler 
than dust. And shall we neglect it? Shall we 
refuse it,^ from such a hand too, as that by 
which it is offered ? Shall we so judge our- 
selves unworthy of eternal life,^ as thereby 
indeed to make ourselves worthy of eternal 
death ? For there is no other alternative. — 
But blessed be God, it is not universally neg- 
lected. There are, I doubt not, among you, 
many who pursue it, many who shall assured- 
ly obtain it. For their sakes let us reflect, 

3. How courageously may the heads which 
are to wear such a crown, be lifted up to face 
all the trials of life and death ! 

Those trials may be various, and perhaps 
extreme ; but if borne aright, far from depriv- 
ing us of this crown, they will oily serve to 
increase its lustre. It is the apostle Paul's 

* Acts xiii. 46. 



OF COL. GARDINER. 253 

express assertion ; and he speaks, as trans- 
ported with the thought : For this cause we 
faint not, but though the outward man perish, 
yet the inward man is renewed day by day : 
For our light affliction, which is but for a mo- 
ment, worketh for us a far more exceeding 
and eternal weight of glory ; while we look 
not at the things which are seen, but at the 
things which are not seen ; for the things 
which are seen are temporal, but the thirtgs 
which are not seen are eternal.^ Surely with 
this support, we may not only live, but tri- 
umph, in poverty, in reproach, in weakness, 
in pain : and with this we may die, not only 
serenely, but joyfully. Oh my friends, 
where are our hearts ? Where is our faith ? 
Nay, I will add, where is our reason ? Why 
are not our eyes, our desires, and our hopes, 
more frequently directed upward ? Surely, one 
ray from that resplendent diadem might be 
sufficient to confound all the false charms of 
these transitory vanities, which indeed owe all 
their lustre to the darkness in which they are 
placed. Surely when our spirits are over- 
whelmed within us, one glance of it might be 
sufficient to animate and elevate, and might 
teach us to say, in the midst of dangers, sor- 
rows, and death, in all these things we are 
more than conquerors, through him that loved 
us.f Thus have some triumphed in the last 
extremities of nature ; and both the subject, 
and the occasion also, loudly calls us to reflect, 

• 2 Cor. iv. 16, 17, 18. f Rom. viii. 37. 

X 



254 SERMON ON THE DEATH 

4. What reason we have to congratulate 
those happy souls, that have already received 
the crown of life ! 

When we are weeping over the cold, yea 
the bleeding remains of such, surely it is for 
ourselves, and not for them, that the stream 
flows. The thought of their condition, far 
from moving our compassion, may rather in- 
spire us with joy, and with praise. Look not 
on their pale countenance, nor on the wide 
and deep wounds, through which perhaps the 
soul rushed out to seize the great prize of its 
faith and hope : though even those wounds 
appear beautiful, when earned by distinguish- 
ed virtue, by piety to their country, and their 
God. Look not on the eyes closed in death, 
or the once honoured and beloved head, now 
covered with the dust of the grave ; but view, 
by an internal believing eye, that different form 
which the exalted triumphant spirit already 
wears, the earnest of a yet brighter glory* 
Their great Leader, whose care of them we are 
fondly ready to suspect, or secretly to complain 
of as deficient in such circumstances as these, 
points, as it were, to the white robes, and the 
flourishing palms, which he has given them ; 
and calls for our regard to the crowns of life, 
which he has set on their heads, and to the 
songs of joy and praise to which he has form- 
ed their exulting tongues. And do we sully 
and dishonour their triumphs with our tears ? 
Do we think so meanly of heaven, and of them, 
as to wish them with us again : that they 
might eat and drink at our tables ; that they 



OF COL, GARDINER, 255 

might talk with us in our low language ; that 
they might travel with us from stage to stage 
in this wilderness ; and take their share with 
us in those vanities of life, of which we our- 
selves are so often weary, that there is hardly 
a week, or a day, in which we are not lifting 
up our eyes, and saying with a deep inward 
groan, Oh that we had wings like a dove ! 
Then we would flee away, and be at rest. ^ 

Surely, with relation to those faithful sol- 
diers of Jesus Christ, who have already fallen, 
it is matter of no small joy to reflect, that their 
warfare is accomplished ;t that they have at 
length passed through every scene in which 
their fidelity could be endangered ; so that 
now, they are inviolably secure. How much 
more then should we rejoice, that they are en- 
tered, not only into the rest, but into the joy of 
their Lord ; that they conquered, even when 
they fell ; and are now reaping the fruits, the 
celestial and immortal fruits, of that last great 
victory ! 

A sense of honour often taught the heathens, 
when attending those friends to the funeral pile, 
who had died honourably in their country's 
cause, to use some ceremonies expressive of 
their joy for their glory ; though that glory was 
an empty name, and all the reward of it a wreath 
of laurel, which w as soon to crackle in the 
flame, and vanish into smoke. And shall not 
the joy and glory of the living spirit affect us, 
much more than they could be affected with 
the honours paid to the mangled corpse ? 

* Psalm Iv. 6. f Isaiah xl. 2; 



256 SERMON ON THE DEATH 

Let US then think with reverence, and with 
joy, on the pious dead ; and especially on 
those, whom God honoured with any special 
opportunities of approving their fidehty, in hfe, 
or in death : And if we mourn, (as who, in 
some circumstances, can forbear it ?) let it be 
as christians, with that mixture of high con- 
gratulation, with that erect countenance, and 
that undaunted heart, which becomes those 
that see by faith their exaltation and felicity : 
and burning with a strong and sacred eager- 
ness to join their triumphant company, let us 
be ready to share in the most painful of their 
trials, that we may also share in their glories. 

And surely, if I have ever known a life, and 
a death, capable of inspiring us with these 
sentiments hi their sublimest elevations, it 
w^as the life and the death of that illustrious 
christian hero, Col. Gardiner ; whose charac- 
ter was too well known to many of you, by 
some months residence here, to need your be- 
ing informed of it from me ; and whose history 
was too remarkable, to be confined within those 
few remaining moments, which must be allot- 
ted to the finishing of this discourse. Yet 
there was something so uncommon in both, 
that I think it of high importance to the hon- 
our of the gospel and grace of Christ, that 
they should be delivered down to posterity, in 
a distinct and particular view. And therefore, 
as the providence of God, in concurrence with 
that most intimate and familiar friendship with 
which this great and good man was pleased to 
honour me, gives me an opportunity of speak- 



OF COL. GARDINER. 257 

ingof many important things, especially relat- 
ing to his religious experiences, with greater 
exactness and certainty than most others might 
be capable of doing ; and as he gave me his 
full permission, in case I should have the af- 
fliction to survive him, to declare freely what, 
ever I knew of him, which I might apprehend 
conducive to the glory of God, and the ad- 
vancement of religion ; I purpose publishing, 
in a distinct tract, some remarkable passages 
of his life, illustrated by extracts from his own 
letters, w^hich speak in the most forcible man- 
ner the genuine sentiments of his heart. But 
as I promise myself considerable assistance in 
this work from some valuable persons in the 
northern part of our island, and possibly from 
some of his own papers, to which our present 
confusions forbid my access, I must delay the 
execution of this design at least for a few 
months : and must likewise take heed, that I 
do not too much anticipate what I may then 
offer to the public view, by what it might oth- 
erwise be very proper to mention now. 

Let it therefore suffice for the present to re- 
mind you, that Colonel Gardiner was one of 
the most illustrious instances of the energy, and 
indeed I must also add, of the sovereignty of 
divine grace, which I have heard or read of in 
modern history. He w^as in the most amazing 
and miraculous manner, without any divine 
ordinance, without any religious opportunity, 
or peculiar advantage, deliverance, or afflic- 
tion, reclaimed on a sudden, in the vigour of 



258 SERMON ON THE DEATii 

life and health, from the most licentious and 
abandoned sensuality, not only to a steady 
course of regularity and virtue, but to high de- 
votion, and strict, though unaffected sanctity of 
manners : A course, (in which he persisted 
for more than twenty six years, that is, to the 
close of life) so remarkably eminent for piety 
towards God, diffusive humanity and christian 
charity, lively faith, deep humility, strict tem- 
perance, active diligence in improving time, 
meek resignation to the will of God, steady 
patience in enduring afflictions, unaffected con- 
tempt of secular interest, and resolute and 
courageous zeal in mamtaining truth, as well 
as in reproving, and (where his authority might 
take place) restraining vice and wickedness of , 
every kind ; that I must deliberately declare, 
that when I consider all these particulars to- 
gether, it is hard to say where, but in the book 
of God, he found his example, or where he 
has left his equal. Every one of these articles, 
with many more, I hope, if God spare my life, 
to have an opportunity of illustrating, in such 
a manner as to shew, that he w^as a living de- 
monstration of the energy and excellency of 
the christian religion ; nor can I imagine how 
I can serve its interests better, than by record- 
ing what I have seen and known upon this head, 
known to my own edification, as well as my 

joy- 
But oh, how shall Head back your thoughts, 
and my own, to what we once enjoyed in 
him, without too deep and tender a sense of 
what we have lost ? To have poured out his 



or COL. GARDINER. 259 

soul ill blood ; to have fallen by the savage 
and rebellious hands of his own countrymen, 
at the wall of his own house ; deserted by 
those, who were under the highest obligations 
that can be imagined to have defended his life 
with their own ; and above all, to have seen 
with his dying eyes the enemies of our relig. 
ion and liberties triumphant, and to have heard 
in his latest moments the horrid noise of their 
insulting shouts ; — is a scene, in the view of 
which we are almost tempted to say, where 
were the shields of angels? Where the eye of 
Providence ? Where the remembrance of 
those numberless prayers, which had been of- 
fered to God for the preservation of such a 
man, at such a time as this ? But let faith 
assure us, that he was never more dear and 
precious in the eye of his divine Leader, than 
in these dreadful moments, when, if sense were 
to judge, he might seem most neglected. 
That is of all others the happiest death, which 
may most sensibly approve our fidelity to God, 
and our zeal for his glory. To stand singly in 
the combat with the fiercest enemies, in the 
cause of religion and liberty, when the whole 
regiment he commanded fled ; to throw him- 
self with so noble an ardour to defend those on 
foot, whom the whole body which he headed 
were appointed to support, w^hen he saw that 
the fall of the nearest commander exposed 
those brave men to the extremity of danger ; 
were circumstances that evidently shew^ed, 
how much he held honour and duty dearer than 
life. He could not but be conscious of the dis- 



260 SERMON ON THE DEATH 

tinguished profession he had made, under a 
reli^^ious character ; he could not but be sen- 
sibie, how much our army, in circumstances 
like these, needs all that the most generous 
examples can do, to animate its officers and 
its soldiers : And therefore he seems deliber- 
ate!} to have judged, that although when his 
men \' ould hear no voice but that of their fears, 
he might have retreated without infamy, it was 
better he should die in so glorious a cause, 
than have it thought that his regard to religion 
and liberty was but a mere profession, that was 
not strong enough to make him faithful unto 
death. He had long felt the force of it ; and 
had too high a value for his king and country, 
to think of deserting the trust committed to 
him ; too great a love for the protestant relig- 
ion, to think of exchanging it for the errors of 
Popery ; and rather than give way to a rebel- 
lious crew, by whose success an inlet w ould be 
opened to the cruel ravages of arbitrary power, 
and to the bloody and relentless rage of Popish 
superstition, he loved not his life unto the 
death. ^ And in this view his death was mar- 
tyrdom, and has, I doubt not, received the ap- 
plauses and rewards of it : For what is martyr- 
domi, but voluntarily to meet death, for the 
honour of God, and the testimony of a good 
conscience ? And if it be indeed true, as it is 
reported on very considerable authority, that 
before he expired he had an interview with the 
leader of the opposite party, and declared in 
his presence '* the full assurance he had of an 

* Rev. xii. 11. 



OP COL. GARDINER. 261 

immortal crown, which he was going to 
receive," it is a circumstance worthy of being 
had in everlasting remembrance : As in that 
case. Providence may seem wonderfully to 
have united two seemingly inconsistent cir- 
cumstances, in the manner of his dying ; the 
alternative of either of which he has spoken of 
in my hearing, as what with humble submis- 
sion to the great Lord of life, he could most 
earnestly wish : " That if he were not called 
directly to die for the truth," which he rightly 
judged the most glorious and happy lot of 
mortality, '' he might either fall in the field of 
battle, fighting in defence of the religion and 
liberties of his country ; or might have an op- 
portunity of expressing his hopes and joys, as 
a christian, to the honour of his Lord, and the 
edification of those about him, in his departing 
moments ; and so might go off this earthly 
stage," as in the letter that relates his death, it 
is expressly said that he did, " triumphing in 
the assurance of a blessed immortality." 

How difficult it must be in our present 
circumstances, to gain certain and exact infor- 
mation, you will easily perceive : But enough 
is known, and more than enough, to shew how 
jusriy the high consolations of that glorious 
subject which we have been contemplating, 
may be applied to the present solemn occasion. 
From what is certain with relation to him, we 
may presume to say, that after he had adorned 
the gospel by so honourable a life, in such a 
conspicuous station, God seems to have con- 
descended, as with his own hand, to raise him 



262 SERMON ON THE DEATH 

an illustrious theatre, on which he might die a 
venerable and arni'ible spectacle to the world, 
and to angels, and to men ;* balancing to his 
native land by such an exit, the loss of what 
future services it could have expected, from a 
constitution so much broken as his was, by 
the fatigues of his campaign in Flanders, 
where he contracted an illness, from which he 
never recovered. 

On the whole, therefore, whatever cause 
we have (as indeed we have great cause) to 
sympathise with his wounded family, and 
with his wounded country ; and how^ decent 
soever it may be, like David, to take up our 
lamentation over the mighty fallen, and the 
brightest weapons of our war perished ;t (^md 
oh, how naturally might some of us adopt 
the preceding w^ords too !) yet, after all, let 
us endeavour to summon up a spirit, like that 
with which he bore the loss of friends, em- 
inent for their goodness and usefulness. And 
while w^e glorify God in him, J as on so many 
accounts we have reason to do, let us be ani- 
mated by such an example to a resolution of 
continuing like him, stedfast in our duty, 
amidst desertion and danger, and all the ter- 
rors that can beset us around. As he, having 
been so eminently faithful unto death, has 
undoubtedlv received a crown of life, which 
shines with distinguished lustre, among those 
who are com.e out of much tribulation : § 
let us be courageous followers of him, and of 

* 1 Cor. iv. 9. t 2 Sam. i. 27. 

t Gal. i. 24. § Rev. vu. 14. 



OF COL. GARDINER. 263 

all the glorious company of those, who through 
faith and patience inherit the promises.'^ 
Then may we be able to enter into the com- 
fort and spirit of them all, and of this promise 
in particular ; and shall not be discouraged, 
though we are called to endure a great fight 
of afflictions,! or even to sacrifice our lives, 
like him, in defence of our religion and liber- 
ties : Since in this cause we know, if we 
should fall like him, even to die is gain ;J 
and while his memory is blessed, § and his 
name had in honour, we are assured upon the 
best authority, that having fought the good 
fight with so heroic a fortitude, and finished 
his course with so steady a tenor, and kept the 
faith with so unshaken a resolution, there is 
laid up for him a crown of brighter glory than 
he has yet received, which the Lord the right- 
ous Judge will give unto him in that great 
expected day ; and not unto him only, but un- 
to all them that love his appearance. 2 Tim. 
iv. 7, 8. Amen. 

« Heb. vi. 12. t Heb. x. 32. 

■^ Phil i. 21. § Proy. x. 7. 



A HYMN. 

SUNG AFTER THE SERMON. 

HARK ! 'tis our heavenly Leader's voice 

l^ ^om bis triumphant seat : 
Midst all the war's tumultuous noise. 

How pow'rful, and how sweet 1 

*^* Fi^ht on, my faithful band," he crie§, 

*' Nor fear the mortal blow : 
Who first in such a warfare dies, 

Shall speediest victory know, 

I have my days of combat known, 

Aad ill the dust was laid : 
But thence I mounted to my throne. 

And glory crowns my head. 

That throne, that glory, you shall share '; 

My hands the crown shall give: 
And you the sparkling honours wear. 

While God himself shall live." 

Lord, 'tis enough ! our bosoms glow 

With courage and with love : 
Thine hand shall bear thy soldiers thro', 

AndVaise their heads above. 

My soul, while deaths beset me round. 

Erects her ardent eyes ; 
And longs, thro' some illustrious wound. 

To rush and seize the prize. 



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